Final Project – Speech Production Lab

PDFs

Final paper examples:

FAQs

General Questions

Since the requirements of the project are already posted, can I go ahead and start on it or do I need to wait until it is assigned?

You may start on your project whenever you like. You will find it easier to transcribe your subject after the midpoint of the semester when you have learned all you need to know about transcribing, but you could easily find a subject, record them, and begin researching the language.

When Transcribing Your Corpus

There’s a part at the end of the interview I would like to use, but the rest of my transcription will be at the beginning of the interview. Is that okay? Also, what should I do if I speak during the part that I want to use? Do I need to transcribe what I say or should I leave it out?

You will need to pick a single, continuous section of your interview to transcribe — don’t jump around to different parts of your recording.

It is okay if you speak during the section you want to transcribe, you don’t need to transcribe your own speech. Put *interviewer speaks* in the gloss (English spelling) and the corpus (IPA transcription). Just remember to separate metrical breaks with ” | ” and start and stop your transcription with “[” and “]”, respectively (indicating narrow transcription).

For example:

Gloss: Blah blah blah, blah, blah blah. *interviewer speaks* Blah blah, blah.
Corpus: [ bla bla bla | bla | bla bla ] *interviewer speaks* [ bla bla | bla ]

The girl I interviewed does a lot of “um” and “uh” in the recording. Do I need to transcribe them?

Yes, you will need to put everything that your subject utters in your gloss and your corpus. However, if your speaker says these repetitively throughout your interview, these will not count towards your total word count.

I have made one pass through my transcription and I am struggling with junctures. My speaker sounds as if she runs words together like: “and it is a” sounds like “anditsa,” “which is in” sounds like “witshizn.” Can I transcribe these as one unit?

If your speaker is truly running words together then you may transcribe them as one unit to show that. Remember that in some languages, speech can seem faster because the language is syllable-timed rather than stress-timed, so only transcribe this way when your speaker says a few words especially fast.

Do I need to put a “|” after every pause my speaker makes? What if my speaker is pausing after every word? Do we put a “|” when they stumble over a word, stop, and recover really quickly?

It is hard to say without listening to the recording. Remember that phrase boundaries are used at the end of a phrase, and most often occur when a speaker is taking a breath. Listen carefully and decide whether they are speaking slowly or pausing enough to separate the phrase groups.

In our textbook, there are lots of diacritics and suprasegmental examples that we didn’t learn in class. If my speaker is doing something that one of those symbols will apply for, can I use them?

You can use any IPA symbol and diacritic that is listed. However, you will want to be careful because many of the diacritics may only be used in certain languages. Be certain of what you are hearing and don’t just randomly apply diacritics to your transcription.

When Completing Your Project

I want to use some IPA in my project, should I use broad or narrow transcription?

You can choose which one you would like to use, but the key is to use that style consistently. If you really want or need to show a phonetic difference that uses diacritics, use narrow transcription throughout your entire project.

My speaker told me about a food they make at home but the dish has non-GAE sounds in its name. Can I talk about that in my paper as a difference between their speech and GAE?

Unless your speaker is translating the name to English and not using the dish’s original name, you can’t refer to it as part of your speaker’s accent because that would be a word spoken in their native language. The same goes for people’s names, cities, and other foreign words. Transcribe the word in your corpus with the non-GAE sound, but don’t add it into your paper.

Dr. Katz has warned us not to use any encyclopedias or Wikipedia entries as sources and I wondered if that included the specialized linguistic encyclopedias in our library? Also, what kind of internet sites can I use as a source?

You can use the linguistic encyclopedias in the library but be aware that you will need to use other references as well. The very best source is a peer-reviewed journal article. These include the articles that you can find on Ebscohost through the McDermott library.

You may use internet sources but be very careful to make sure that it is a reliable source. Anyone can make a web page so a source is not reliable just because it is posted on the internet. Check that the site has .gov or .edu at the end of its name instead of .com or .org, these will either be government or university websites so they are a little more reliable.

Be wary of sites like Wikipedia that claim to be an online encyclopedia but allow anyone to edit the site’s entries. However, many of Wikipedia’s sites also list references. If you see a piece of information that you would like to use, follow the reference link and use that article as your source, instead.

This is my first time using APA and I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how to cite my references. Are there any manuals that I can look at that will help?

There is an APA manual that you may want to check out, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, that will tell you all about formatting your paper. You can also use the example template that Dr. Katz has to base the overall look of your paper on:

If you’re having trouble citing a particular reference because it’s unusual (no author, interview, etc.), you can use the OWL at Purdue’s guide to APA formatting found here:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (Owl)