Pauses between utterances
Enter the length of the pause in minutes:seconds or :seconds on its own line. This "pause line" must start with either a colon or a semicolon, depending on whether or not there is also a turn change. Use a colon to indicate a pause that results in a turn change and a semicolon when there is no accompanying turn change. For example,
Change in speaker and speaker turn:
E What are you hold/ing?
: 0:03
C A ball.
No change in speaker, change in speaker turn:
C And then he saw the giant.
: 0:05 {something fell}
C Oops.
No change in speaker or in speaker turn:
C We drive a car.
; 0:03
C We never fly anywhere.
The distinction of colon versus semicolon is important to the analysis of turn length. In the first example it is obvious that there is a turn change after the pause as there is also speaker change. Therefore, the pause line starts with a colon. In the second example there is a turn change despite the fact that there is no speaker change. After the pause, the child continues to speak but the topic is not continued. Therefore, the pause line starts with a colon so that the second child utterance begins a new turn. Notice that a few words describing the nature of the pause-time may be placed in comment braces immediately following the time entry. In the third example there is neither a speaker change nor a turn change. Although there is a significant pause, the same speaker continues with the same line of thought. Therefore, the pause line begins with a semicolon. |
