A study of backchannels in regional varieties of English, using corpus mark-up as the means of identification

Abstract

Backchannels are a linguistic phenomenon that remains poorly defined. Borrowing of terminology and a reliance on axiomatic definitions has resulted in a diverse nomenclature and an indeterminate inventory of forms. Further, research concentration on backchannels produced in northern hemisphere English has led to the assumption of a common repertoire across all varieties, without supporting empirical investigation. This investigation analysed transcriptions of telephone conversations drawn from the Australian and New Zealand sub-corpora of the International Corpus of English (ICE), and used the ICE corpus mark-up scheme to select potential targets. Chi-square analyses found listeners used single word backchannels more often than more elaborate forms; and Australian listeners produced more backchannels and more single forms. These findings were compared with reported usage by US English listeners, showing that while listeners worldwide draw from a common repertoire of backchannel forms, they differ in the complexity of the structures they use.

Corpora and Language Education

“…Peters' (1996) study uses data from the British and Australian components of the ICE corpus to examine aspects of the comparative clauses conjoined with correlative than and as and to compare their use in Britain and Australia. Another study comparing different varieties of inner circle English is that by Wong and Peters (2007), who carried out a two-way and three-way study of backchannels (feedback given while someone else is talking, e.g. uh-huh, to show interest, attention and/or a willingness to keep listening).…”

Integrating Corpus-Linguistic and Conversation-Analytic Transcription in XML: The Case of Backchannels and Overlap in Storytelling Interaction

“…The findings then support the view that ''the bulk of overlaps are of short duration'' (Levinson and Torreira 2015: 4; cf. also Wong and Peters 2007;Peters and Wong 2015).…”

Group Work in the English Language Curriculum

“…Turns are quite short, although understandably longer for Woot, who is the main provider of information. There is significant feedback from Angel and Ploy in the form of short non-interruptive backchannel responses (Wong and Peters, 2007), for example, really, oh, yes, yes I see and non-linguistic nods of the head. There are also responses to request further information, for example, And are you still doing it now?…”