C: because there 's so many voices in my head .
E: You mean when you leave here ?
E: When you 're somewhere else ?
C: No , no . While I while I 'm working here ,
E: No , no . OK .
C: it 's like nine o '
C: and nobody 's here except for me ,
C: and I 'm like , " You know , I don't feel so lonely
D: Oh , yeah .
C: because there are like eight people talking to me all at once " .
C: I 'm like , " Wow " .
E: How about these meetings when where there are like eight speakers i in one meeting .
E: Are those What are those like ?
C: Takes a long time .
E: Are F: They take longer to do .
D: It takes a long time , yeah .
B: Mmm .
E: OK .
A: Yeah .
F: In a way they 're more fun , though .
C: Takes a long time .
D: Yeah .
F: There 's just more variety .
D: I tends I you know what I noticed , is it tends to have a still , a dominant group of speakers
C: Sometimes .
D: and then there are two or three people generally who don't talk at all
B: Mmm .
C: Yeah .
F: Who won't talk .
D: except to say their digits or something ,
D: or who F: And to breathe .
B: Yeah .
D: or to breathe and cough and sniff and whatever .
C: Right .
B: Oh , god !
F: There 'll be lots of breathing . Yeah .
D: Yeah .
D: Yeah . But I I think that still overall you 're gonna have probably three or four or five dominant speakers .
C: One thing I noticed is that , like ,
C: uhhh ! <comment> There was this one meeting I was transcribing , there were nine nine speakers ,
C: and by the end of it , I was so entirely sick of listening to the same conversation all over again
D: Yeah .
C: nine times in slow - mo !
D: Exactly .
A: Definitely .
C: I was going nuts .
C: I was like , " I cannot take this anymore .
C: I can't listen to this anymore .
C: Oh my god ! "
E: I had that same reaction .
D: Yeah .
E: Absolutely . And sometimes these are meetings I participated in .
E: It 's - it 's like A: Mm - hmm .
D: So you 've this is like the tenth time for you , then .
C: I swear it 's like it 's like a bad dream .
E: That 's righ that 's right .
C: It 's like , " This is this is keep happ this keeps happening to me " .
D: Yeah .
E: Never changes .
E: I 'm gonna check out outside to make sure that we 're OK with the , um
D: Oh , OK .
C: Oh . OK .
F: Did you guys ever ,
F: when This happened to me when I first started transcribing ,
F: cuz I had never really transcribed stuff like this before ,
E: Is it OK if we stay for another half hour in this room ?
F: but , um ,
D: Mm - hmm .
E: Good , thanks .
F: I would leave here ,
F: and I would go out and do my daily business ,
F: and I would hear people speaking to me ,
C: Yeah .
F: and I would transcribe them in my head !
C: Yes ! Yeah , yeah , yeah . Oh yeah .
D: Oh , man .
A: Oh yeah ! That 's fun !
F: I 'd imagine what I would type .
D: Yeah ! Yeah .
B: Mmm .
F: It went away , like maybe after a couple of weeks ,
C: Yeah .
A: Oh really ?
F: but it was just bizarre .
C: I still do that . I still do that .
A: I still do that .
B: No , I don't
B: Yeah .
F: Really ?
D: Occasionally .
A: Yeah .
C: Yeah .
D: Like on the bus or something when I 'm bored .
C: Yep . Or , like , I 'll think B: Right . It 's something you 're not interacting with ,
F: Oh . No , for me it was unconscious .
B: you 're just listening .
D: Oh , really ?
F: It was I didn't mean for to be doing it .
D: Oh , OK .
C: No , yeah . N Yeah .
A: Oh , oh .
F: It would just intru it was an intrusion .
B: Mm - hmm .
D: Oh , that 's funny .
F: Um , not a te not a bad intrusion ,
A: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
F: but
F: not something I was sort of volitionally sort of D: Huh , that 's interesting .
C: I would also be really aw aware of w how I was speaking .
A: Hmm .
F: Yes !
C: Cuz I also tend C: Like , we were talking about " so " .
C: I do that .
A: Mm - hmm .
C: I 'll end utterances with " so " or " and " .
D: Yeah .
C: and it 'll just be a trailing off , and I 'll think , " Man . I would be such a pain in the butt to transcribe . "
F: Yeah !
D: Mm - hmm .
B: Mmm .
F: Yeah !
C: Like I just , uh , I g
C: yeah .
C: I 'll I 'll do the same thing as you do ,
C: and I I 'll listen to somebody and his or her speech will be particularly idios idiosyncratic ,
F: Yeah , yeah .
C: and I 'll go , " Wow , I just I 'm glad I 'm not transcribing him or her " .
D: Yeah . I noticed a lot of my speech i I don't know , I wouldn't call them errors , I guess disfluencies , a lot more once when I started transcribing .
D: I just noticed and in ge people in general , that people break up their speech interestingly .
B: Mmm .
F: Yeah .
C: Right .
F: Yeah .
A: Mmm .
C: I 'm amazed sometimes that we manage to communicate .
D: Yeah !
D: Actually .
C: You know ? Cuz people will say just , like , you know , monosyllabic little grunts and squeaks and things ,
D: I think that shows a lot of I think that shows a lot of how , um , it 's not all acoustic .
C: and it means something .
D: I mean , there 's other things involved ,
C: Right .
D: eye contact ,
D: body language ,
C: Right .
D: gesture ,
D: whatever .
A: Right .
E: That raises a question .
E: Um , do you think that , um , you would have been considerably helped if we had had video tapes of these things ?
F: Oh sure .
C: Yes .
D: Yeah .
E: OK .
D: I definitely think so .
C: Yep . Mhh .
D: And I think there would be a lot more interesting data to analyze later on , personally .
E: Mmm , well , mm - hmm , mm - hmm that 's right ,
C: Uh - huh .
E: cuz you 're involved in gesture research .
D: Yeah .
E: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
C: Yeah , cuz then you know exactly what 's going on ,
C: what the context cues are D: And you can really get a feel for the re interpersonal relationships ,
C: Yeah .
D: which kind of comes into play , maybe not for speech recognition ,
D: but for other things , maybe ?
C: Maybe this is what it 's like to be blind .
E: Mmm - hmm .
E: Oh , interesting .
A: Hmm .
D: Maybe .
F: Hmm .
E: Huh .
F: Yeah .
A: Hmm .
C: No no visual input at all .
D: Yeah , you just have to rely on your intonation ,
D: and other things like that .
C: Right .
C: And you get so much more aware of all of it too .
D: Yeah . Mm - hmm . Maybe .
E: Mm - hmm .
B: Hmm .
A: Yeah .
E: That 's E: I know someone who actually recognizes perfumes in the elevator .
E: I mean , there 's a there 's a blind man in this in this building ,
D: Oh .
D: Uh - huh .
E: and and , um , Lila was in the elevator one day .
E: And they hadn't spoken yet
E: cuz he just came on the elevator
E: and he says E: uh , and then she then she said something
E: and he says , " Y you sp you 've changed your perfume . "
C: Oh wow .
E: Yeah , it 's pretty interesting . Pretty interesting .
A: Huh .
D: That 's pretty amazing .
F: Had she changed her perfume ?
C: That 's neat .
E: Yes , she had .
F: Oh , wow .
E: Yeah .
C: Huh .
A: Hmm .
E: Yeah .
F: Oof !
E: Yeah .
B: Hmm .
E: It 's very interesting .
D: Enhanced other senses , I guess .
D: That 's really cool .
C: Right .
D: Hmm .
E: Have you E: I I 've learned several things about having been Wi - i with the close - talking mikes .
E: This is this is a new experience .
E: Cuz I have of course been involved in in this kind of thing for quite a while ,
E: but th there are several things I didn't realize you could hear so reliably ,
A: Mm - hmm .
D: Mm - hmm .
E: and some of these are the things like when the mouth opens
E: and the inbreath and stuff
E: and it and how extremely audible and and visual ,
A: Mm - hmm .
C: Mm - hmm .
B: Uh - huh .
E: I mean , you can see these the inbreaths and things .
A: Mm - hmm .
D: Yeah .
C: Mm - hmm .
E: It 's that was really surprising to me , that you it 's that tangible .
A: Yeah .
D: That 's something you don't hear in normal speech too .
F: Mm - hmm .
D: In normal conversations , <comment> unless it 's very dramatic or very loud ,
F: Mm - hmm .
D: that people click their Their lips are always making funny noises
B: Unless you 're on , uh , talking on the phone ,
D: and B: and the phone is the levels are funny .
D: Yeah .
B: Then you hear it .
D: Yeah .
B: So , th it 's kind of like that .
C: Right .
D: Yeah .
E: I guess it 's also one of these things that u usually is not meaningful ,
E: so we sort of screen it out .
D: Yeah .
E: u all these different in
E: cuz , you know , I mean , we do that all the time with all other well , lots of other aspects of the acoustic signal .
A: Right .
D: Yeah .
F: Mm - hmm . Mm - hmm .
E: It sounds like it 's a nice smooth melody ,
E: but these things are voicing and unvoicing , are tripping in and out ,
E: and they don't The contour is really not nearly that neat .
E: Yeah .
C: Yeah .
F: Right . Yeah well , yeah , most of the time when we 're listening to other people 's speech , we 're just trying to get the gist .
F: Not literally what people are saying
E: Mm - hmm .
B: Mmm .
F: and so ,
F: you know , all the " uh " " uh 's " and " um 's " , and all those different things ,
C: That 's true .
D: We - yeah , we filter all that out .
F: we just tune it out ,
D: Yeah .
F: yeah .
A: Mm - hmm .
F: And , uh , it 's that top - down thing again .
F: Just F: right ?
E: Mm - hmm . Yeah . Yeah , absolutely . Absolutely .
F: In a way .
F: Just trying to get the , um ,
F: you know , what is the p " what is the point of what this person is trying to communicate ? " kind of thing .
D: Mm - hmm .
E: That 's right .
F: So .
B: Hmm .
D: Which is a very it 's that 's how I tended before studying linguistics anyways and , uh , definitely before doing transcription , <comment> how I tended to look all conversations ,
E: That 's right .
D: and then coming here and doing this , you have to look at speech in a totally more intense way .
D: Um .
D: Including , I mean , every little aspect .
D: I and when I tell people what I do here ,
D: and tell them , " Yeah , I 'm transcribing " .
D: And they 're they think I 'm like a stenographer or something .
C: Right .
F: Yeah .
D: I 'm like , " No , I don't correct the grammar .
A: Mm - hmm .
D: I don't erase the " um " 's and " uh " 's ,
D: I record all the sighs , and the laughs , and the breaths ,
D: and " And they 're D: I don't know .
D: This is a very different thing than most people can relate to , I guess .
E: Mm - hmm . The I agree .
D: Or know about .
E: Another thing that I think is interesting in these meetings is , certain speakers have a tendency to embed utterances in other embed uh , in other utterances .
E: And , um , you know , it 's very clear when you see it when you hear it with the intonational markers ,
E: but well , just the contours ,
A: Mm - hmm .
E: but the words on the page , it 's not at all clear .
D: Yeah .
E: And there are a couple people who do this in particular .
B: Mm - hmm .
E: I I would say that it 's both I would say that both Jerry and Morgan do this .
D: Mm - hmm .
E: And it 's amazing how fluent it is when you hear it ,
E: but how very complicated it is when you see the words .
C: Indecipherable .
D: Yeah .
E: Yeah .
D: And when you think about it , they pick up exactly where they left off ,
D: even though maybe it 's several seconds later , there 's no glitch in the syntax or anything .
D: It 's We 're pretty amazing machines .
D: Or creatures ,
A: Mm - hmm .
D: whatever .
E: Hmm .
A: Mmm .
E: Yeah .
D: That 's really cool .
C: Machines .
E: Yeah .
E: So , and then of course there are these these things which I think are also nicely represented in the data
E: which are these funny sounds people make ,
E: which to some degree is borrowing from comic talk .
E: So , I notice people going , " Pfft " <comment> you know , if they 're trying to say something is done .
A: Mm - hmm .
E: The Germans do this I think in particular .
D: Yeah .
A: Mm - hmm .
B: Hmm .
E: And there are others that we use like that th
E: which are sort of semi - conventionalized ,
E: but you wouldn't think that you would write them down .
C: Yeah , the one I kn I kn get all the time is " tsk "
A: Yeah .
E: Oh yes ! Good example .
B: Mmm .
C: It 's it 's , uh like I don't know how I just transcribe it as I say , like , " click "
D: Mmm .
A: Mm - hmm .
D: It 's like
D: " tisk " .
C: and then I say , " It 's like a vocal gesture . "
C: Like a shrug or a vocal some some sort of like , " Well , there it is " .
E: Yes .
A: Yeah .
D: Yeah .
C: Or , " That 's it . "
A: Yeah .
C: Or something like that , you know .
C: That people do that one a lot .
C: And there was one speaker who used to do it constantly .
C: And after a while , I started getting confused as to whether or not he was , like , just going " tsk - tsk - tsk - tsk - tsk " to himself ,
C: or whether he was meaning it in conversat
C: Sometimes it was really obvious that he meant it as some sort of vocal cue .
D: Mm - hmm .
C: But then sometimes it was more ambiguous .
C: Like it was tough to tell ,
C: um , because he would just always be clicking .
E: This cou Is this the one that E: I mean , it could be the one that we were thinking about .
D: It could be .
D: But I noticed it more as it was obviously not D: because it was always in a g the one I 'm thinking of always came in groups of four or something .
E: Yes . Uh - huh .
D: And so it wasn't ever like a , um , single l
C: Mmm .
C: Oh , OK .
E: It would be it would C: Yeah , this guy does a lot of single ones .
D: Yeah .
E: Oh , how interesting .
C: Yeah , just kind of , um C: And , uh that 's another thing like I I realize I do that too .
E: I 'll ask you who this is later .
E: I don't wanna cuz
A: Hmm .
C: I can't remember the name actually .
E: OK .
E: The the one that I 'm thinking of ,
E: i it 's a matter of you can tell it 's in context where he 's looking in his agenda to see , you know , " Do I have time to do this ? "
D: Mm - hmm .
E: and he 's calculating it in his mind .
E: So it 's sort of li almost like a stand - in for calculator , kind of thing .
B: Hmm .
E: And i uh , but it 's signaling .
E: I 'm sure that everybody I 'm sure that other people can hear it .
E: So it 's sort of like , " Wait a minute , I 'm thinking . "
D: Right . Yeah . Yeah . Yeah .
C: Mm - hmm .
E: But it 's not lexicalized .
E: This is not a A: Hmm .
D: That 's kind of the impression I got too .
E: i not in a standard way ,
C: Oh . Yeah , that 's a different person .
E: it 's E: OK . OK . OK .
C: Yeah . OK , I know who you 're talking about .
C: But this is somebody somebody differ
E: He must do this in a lot of meetings
E: because I think you know , I 've run across it several times .
A: I don't think I 've ever heard it .
D: No .
F: No .
D: Hmm .
F: I 've heard
A: Yeah .
E: Yeah .
F: Which I just transcribe as " mouth " .
E: Heard that one .
E: Oh , I see .
F: I just make a mouth A: Huh .
F: Cuz I think I had talked to you about this about
F: what what did we do cuz wha what was it that I F: oh , I was F: " Lipsmack " !
D: Yeah .
E: Oh yes .
C: Yeah .
F: I was marking " lipsmack " ,
F: and and you said D: That 's more like the " @ @ " .
F: yeah , that 's It 's a different noise ,
A: Hmm .
D: Yeah .
F: but , um ,
F: it 's what made me think of it ,
B: Ah .
F: but , um ,
C: The one you 're talking ab
F: and and you said , " Don't do " lipsmack " ,
F: just do we don't need it 's too specific .
F: Just do " mouth " for all tha all those noises " .
E: Yeah , OK . Now what I would say um ,
F: Um E: it 's good to know this .
E: C what I what I would say is , um , if it 's communicative s beyond just the p mouth opening and the w oh , you know , the mechanical aspects that happen when you happen to be about to speak , then I would like to have it if it 's communicative , I 'd like to have it preserved .
F: Mm - hmm .
A: Mm - hmm .
B: Mm - hmm .
A: Right .
E: a But if it 's just this mechanical stuff , " mouth " is fine .
F: Mm - hmm .
E: The It seems like the computer science people use " lipsmack " for that .
E: I Personally , my choice E: eh , w we 've we 're still deciding on how we 're gonna encode it in the final version .
E: But I tend to not like " lipsmack "
E: because I think that that 's could be meaningful
E: and it 's a little confusing .
D: Mm - hmm .
C: Mm - hmm .
E: People talk about , you know , " Oh gee , that was really good , "
B: Mmm .
E: and then they do a E: I 'm not gonna do it
E: cuz I don't really know how to do lipsmack .
E: But but it seems like it would be a a vocal gesture ,
F: Yeah .
D: It could be .
E: a definite type of thing .
D: Yeah .
C: Right . Yeah , th I was thinking the one that you just did , like " tsk " . <comment> makes me think of the what people would write as " tsk tsk " .
E: Yes .
E: Same here . Yeah .
D: Yeah . Me too .
C: You know , like , uh , as though they 're like , you know , trying to communicate displeasure .
A: Yeah .
E: I would too .
F: Oh , right .
F: Yeah .
B: Hmm .
A: That 's true . Yeah .
F: Right .
F: Mm - hmm .
C: And so that C: Yeah .
B: Mmm .
C: U i cu there 's there 's at least two or three that I can think of that to me are very different .
C: You know , there 's like , you know , that ,
F: Right .
C: and there 's like , um , you know , well , the one I did before that 's like
C: I don't know , like , um Hhh .
E: I would say " tongue click " for that .
C: Yeah .
E: But I would also probably put in parentheses it that I thought it was a vocal gesture .
C: Uh - huh .
E: Because I think it 's communicative of a certain thing .
A: Yeah .
C: Yeah .
A: I don't know what I am never sure whether or not to transcribe , um , a difference with , like , " hmm " , <comment> you know , and " hmm ! " .
D: Oh yeah .
E: Oh . Good point . Yes .
A: Like , how do you transcribe " hmm ! " ?
D: It 's like " humph " .
C: I 'll put like a E: Really good point .
E: Yeah .
C: I 'll usually put a an exclamation point somehow .
C: Like I 'll go E: I would too .
A: Yeah ?
D: Oh .
E: I think it 's more emphatic .
A: Mm - hmm .
E: Mm - hmm .
A: W what about pre transcribing it , um , " HMPH " ?