[ ] Square brackets mark the start and end of overlapping speech. Position them in alignment where the overlap occurs, as shown below.

­ ¯ Vertical arrows precede marked pitch movement, over and above normal rhythms of speech. They are for marked, hearably significant shifts — and even then, the other symbols (full stops, commas, question marks) mop up most of that. Like with all these symbols, the aim is to capture interactionally significant features, hearable as such to an ordinary listener—especially deviations from a common sense notion of ‘neutral’ which admittedly has not been well defined.

® Side arrows are not transcription features, but draw analytic attention to particular lines of text. Usually positioned to the left of the line.

Underlining signals vocal emphasis; the extent of underlining within individual words locates emphasis, but also indicates how heavy it is.

CAPITALS mark speech that is obviously louder than surrounding speech (often occurs when speakers are hearably competing for the floor, raised volume rather than doing contrastive emphasis).

° ­ I know it,° ‘degree’ signs enclose obviously quieter speech (i.e., hearably produced-as quieter, not just someone distant).

that’s r*ight. Asterisks precede a ‘squeaky’ vocal delivery.

(0.4) Numbers in round brackets measure pauses in seconds (in this case, 4 tenths of a second). Place on new line if not assigned to a speaker.

(.) A micropause, hearable but too short to measure.

((text)) Additional comments from the transcriber, e.g. context or intonation.

she wa::nted Colons show degrees of elongation of the prior sound; the more colons, the more elongation. I use one per syllable-length.

hhh Aspiration (out-breaths); proportionally as for colons.

.hhh Inspiration (in-breaths); proportionally as for colons.

Yeh, ‘Continuation’ marker, speaker has not finished; marked by fall-rise or weak rising intonation, as when enunciating lists.

y’know? Question marks signal stronger, ‘questioning’ intonation, irrespective of grammar.

Yeh. Periods (full stops) mark falling, stopping intonation (‘final contour’), irrespective of grammar, and not necessarily followed by a pause.

bu-u- hyphens mark a cut-off of the preceding sound.

>he said< ‘greater than’ and ‘lesser than’ signs enclose speeded-up talk. Sometimes used the other way round for slower talk.

solid.= =We had ‘Equals’ signs mark the immediate ‘latching’ of successive talk, whether of one or more speakers, with no interval. Also used as below (lines 3-5), where an unbroken turn has been split between two lines to accommodate another speaker on the transcript page.

heh heh Voiced laughter. Can have other symbols added, such as underlinings, pitch movement, extra aspiration, etc.

uh um How to spell ‘er’ and ‘erm’ the Jefferson way. (Can be added to, etc.)

sto(h)p i(h)t Laughter within speech is signalled by h’s in round brackets.