TalkBank

CA Form Summary

CA-CLAN uses these non-standard functions:

• Utterances and inter-TCU pauses are numbered by the automatic line numbering function.
• Line numbers can be turned on and off for viewing and printing by using CLAN options
• Utterances begin with a speaker ID code followed by a colon and a tab.
• Tabs are not used elsewhere.
• Overlaps are aligned automatically by the program, so hand indentation is not needed
• To maintain proper alignment, CLAN uses the CAFont

Fields that extend CA include:

• @Begin and @End. Using these guarantees that the file is complete.
• @Comment: This is a useful general purpose field
• @Bg, @Eg: These mark "gems" for later retrieval
• @Participants: This field identifies the speakers.
• %ges: dependent tiers such as %ges, %spa can be added as needed.

The CA character table lists about three dozen special Unicode characters for representing CA features.

Comments on CA characters
Row    Comment
1-2    pitch marks, joined with word
3-8    final contours that replace ? period comma
9-10   the continuation marks +≈ and +≋ are at utterance begin
11     internal continuation ≡ is turn internal
12     inhalation marking is common with laughter
13-16  overlap markers
17-30  quality markers - must be paired at begin and end of region
31-33  marks placed inside words