Table 3.
Transcription conventions24
| (.) | A micropause, hearable but too short to measure |
| >he said< | ‘Greater than’ and ‘lesser than’ signs enclose speeded-up talk. Occasionally they are used the other way round for slower talk |
| Underlining | Indicates emphasis; the extent of underlining within individual words locates emphasis and also indicates how heavy it is |
| ↑ ↓ | Vertical arrows precede marked pitch movement, over and above normal rhythms of speech. They are used for notable changes in pitch beyond those represented by stops, commas and question marks |
| she wa::nted | Colons show degrees of elongation of the prior sound; the more the colons, the more the elongation |
| [ ] | Square brackets mark the start and end of overlapping speech. They are aligned to mark the precise position of overlap as in the example below |
| °↑I know it,° | ‘Degree’ signs enclose hearably quieter speech |