Newcastle Corpus
Transcription conventions
The data is transcribed following the CHILDES conventions, with the additional conventions used for all the corpora in this database (see additional conventions link).
Additionally we made the following decisions regarding the coding of this corpus:
Utterances
As per CHILDES guidelines we created separate utterances for all main clauses, and split them at the following coordinating conjunctions:
et, mais, alors, puis, ou, car, donc, or, ni, cependant.
We did not split utterances at 'parce que' or other subordinating conjunctions:
comme, lorsque, puisque, quand, que, si, etc.
Reported Speech
Reported speech is coded with a a [= r]. The reported speech is put in angled brackets < >.
il dit <qu' est ce qu' il fait ici> a [= r]
Liaisons
Liaisons are marked with [= l].
les petits [= l] hommes .Verb endings
For verb endings, we wrote orthographically whatever the student said: e.g. `je joue', `j'ai joué', `ils jouent', `il veut jouer', `je vais visiter', `j'irai', `il est joué'.
For any form that is non-target-like we wrote -er. If the student says `je jouer' instead of `je joue', then we wrote -er:
je manger.
In cases where it could either be `jouer' or `jouait' (past-tense contexts), we listened to the sound difference.
Invented Forms
For invented forms we used -é, -u, -i:
il a prendu .
il a courri .
il a finissé .
These forms are then tagged as past participle neologisms by the MOR programme.
Overlapping
During the course of a conversation, speakers often talk at the same time. The "overlap follow" [>] symbol indicates that the text enclosed in angle brackets is being said at the same time as the following speaker's bracketed speech. They are talking at the same time. This code must be used in combination with the "overlap precedes" symbol [<], as in this example:
*P31: et où sont elles ?
*AUL: <elles sont> [>] +/.
*P31: <dans le mer> [<] .
*AUL: +, au [/] au Mexique .
*P31: ok .