There is also precious little discussion of the issues in standard texts,
including Brown & Yule as cited by Peter Smagorinsky. In the US, especially
for people influenced by the West Coast Conversational Analysis school,
there is a preference for some variant of the Gail Jefferson system
(described I think in an appendix to one of her classic articles in the
1970s, probably 'Side Sequences' in the D. Sudnow volume?).
The fact is that transcription is heavily theory- and problem- dependent;
for a good discussion see:
Ochs, E.: 1979, 'Transcription as Theory', in E. Ochs & B. Schiefflin,
Developmental Pragmatics, Academic Press, New York.
I devote a little space to this topic in my forthcoming Handbook article:
"Analysing Verbal Data: Principles, Methods, and Problems" in K. Tobin & B.
Fraser, (Eds). International Handbook of Science Education. London: Kluwer
Academic Publishers. pp. 1175-1189.
(Don't try to buy or lift this book without assistance!!)
JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
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