| Περιγραφή: |
If we compare speech with a conventional written transcript (as we find it, for example, in Studs Terkel’s The Great Divide: Second Thoughts on the American Dream, New York: Avon Books, 1989), we see that the text must have gone through a transformation. It is neatly divided into words, sentences, and paragraphs. There is no trace of pauses in mid sentence, hesitations, background noise, etc. Occasional uses of italics and non-standard word forms give a hint of the original spoken delivery, but the spoken realization is largely lost. Such a text is a successful adaptation to the written mode (and Studs Terkel does indeed acknowledge the main transcriber, who ‘has revealed transcribing as an art form’, p. xv), whereas a transcription closer to the original might be unbearable, except to a linguist interested in the peculiarities of speech. |