LINGUIST List 10.1775

Tue Nov 23 1999

Qs: Abstand/Correction, Talk-Analysis Prog Needed

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Robert McColl Millar, Abstand & Ausbau: Corrected Address
2. Katarina Klein, Dialogue analysis in talks: talk-program needed

	
	
	In his seminal article "'Abstand' languages and 'Ausbau' languages",
	_Anthropological Linguistics_ 9:7 of 1967, Heinz Kloss put forward 
	the concepts of _Abstand_ (distinct language by inherent distance) and
	_Ausbau_ (distinct language by development). I would be very grateful if
	anyone could let me know of references to further developments in these
	concepts in later work. I will post a summary on this list.
	
	Robert McColl Millar
	University of Aberdeen, Scotland
	----------------------
	Robert McColl Millar
	enl097abdn.ac.uk
	
	
	
	

Dear all,

In a research project we are examining talks and chats between two
subjects, where a talk is a real-time-talk in a split-screen. Both
participants are able to see in one part of the window what the other one
is writing letter by letter and correction by correction, while they write
themselves in the other half of the window. We distinguish between a talk
(as described) and a chat. A chat we call the kind of chat where every
participant writes first down what she or he wants to be published and
sends this note when she or he presses enter. A chat can take place in one
common window for both participants or in a split-screen-window like the talk.

What we are dealing with are talks in the above definition. To be able to
transcribe these talks in an appropriate way we have been looking for a
program that comes up with the following features:

1. Talk

The program must support real-time-talk in a split-screen-window (like
described above). The windows should be resizable and you should be able to
customize the fonts. The program must be easy enough to use for
computer-beginners.

2. LAN

We need a program, which runs in a local area network (LAN) that is behind
a firewall.

3. Transcription feature

Very important is the transcription of the talks. A good transcription
should save us filming the screens of the participants and transcribe it
completely by hand. The requirements on the transcription are about the
same as on a transcript for a dialogue analysis. We need the sequence and
the succession of the letters typed/the keys hit (e. g. including all
corrections and pauses).

Therefore we need not only a usual chat-transcript, but also one that is
suitable for the requirements of a dialogue-analysis. Best would be a
transcription as ICQ provides, where talks can be saved and replayed
letter-by-letter and key-by-key. The ICQ-chat-transcripts are like a
videotape of the screen; you can even speed it up or slow it down (ICQ
itself violates requirement 2, furthermore our administrator has serious
claims against ICQ behind our firewall, if it works (via groupware) at all).

Unfortunately we do not know a program that fulfils our demands as outlined
before and we did not find any up to now. We hope severely that you can
make us some suggestions. If you have any ideas and you think they could
help us or if you made any experiences with talk-analysis, please contact us.

Thanks in advance for any help

Luise Springer

 Mailto:l.springeruni-koeln.de

Kulturwissenschaftliches Forschungskolleg 
 Medien und kulturelle Kommunikation (SFB/FK 427)
Universit�t zu K�ln - Bernhard-Feilchenfeld-Str.11 - 50969 K�ln - Germany
 Tel: +49 (0)221 470-6759 Fax: -6773
 http://www.uni-koeln.de/inter-fak/fk-427