How to Use Comic-Strip Graphics to Represent Signed Conversation

Abstract

This article explores comic-strip-inspired graphic transcripts as a tool to present conversational video data from informal multiperson conversations in a signed language, specifically Norwegian Sign Language (NTS). The interlocutors’ utterances are represented as English translations in speech bubbles rather than glossed or phonetically transcribed NTS, and the article discusses advantages and disadvantages of this unconventional choice. To contextualize this exploration of graphic transcripts, a small-scale analysis of a stretch of interaction is embedded in the article. The extract shows conversational trouble and repair occurring when interlocutors respond to utterances produced while they as recipients were looking elsewhere. The NTS extract is introduced with a short sample of multilinear, Jefferson-inspired glossed transcript and then presented in full as graphic transcript. The article concludes that for presenting nonsensitive data, graphic transcripts have several advantages, such as improved access to visual features, flexible granularity, and enhanced readability. Data are in Norwegian Sign Language with English translations.