Each example following has a figure with one or several strips. Each of the strips includes two tracks and a timeline (in milliseconds). In each strip the top track is one speaker and the bottom track the other. Each track includes: a transcription, the signal, and the pitch. The back-channel cues are marked by a tan rectangle, while the back-channels are marked by a circle and the questions are marked by a green rectangle.
An English translation is shown below each figure.
This example shows the most common cue, preceeding about 28.7% of the back-channels, a region of low pitch at second 11.85
(11,850ms), followed by a rise in pitch at second 12 (12,000ms) when the speaker said
"hay pero no te he contado" introduced the back-channel "que paso?" at second 12.15 by
the listener (See Figure 1). Another back-channel, "en serio?", occurrs
at 15.15 (15,150ms) after a pitch rise started at second 14.85 of the dialog when
the speaker said "ya corrieron a mi jefe".
In this part of speech the two back-channels were about 3 second apart.
Audio
Figure 1: Typical back-channel cues
speaker 1: Oh but I haven't told you
speaker 2: what happened?
speaker 1: they fired my boss
speaker 2: really?!
In Spanish "yes or no" questions tend to not have a lenghtening but are otherwise very similar in intonation to back-channel cues. In this example the question (marked by a green rectangle) starts with a low pitch region which is followed by an increase in pitch and a pause. Because of the similarity of these prosodic features with those of back-channel cues it is difficult to distinguish them.
Click on Figure 2 below to listen to the audio.
Figure 2: "Yes/no" question
speaker 1: hey and in that year Luis Carlos was there right?
speaker 2: actually in the second year...
This example shows a back-channel cue consisting of a low pitch region with a slight downslope instead of the more common back-channel cue. This lasts from second 1.95 (1,950ms) until second 3.15 (3150ms) at the time the first speaker says "me saque con el." In this instance a back channel follows at second 3.5 (3500ms), where the second speaker back-channels with "no no no no no." Examples similar to this one in which the back-channel cue consists of a low pitch region, accounted for around 7% of total back-channel cues.
Click on Figure 4 below to listen to the audio.
Figure 3: Uncommon back-channel cue with a pitch downslope
speaker 1:
(quiz scores of)two zeros and two fives man, I got with him
speaker 2: no no no no no
speaker 1: and really...
In this example, the first speaker makes an amusing comment, which causes the second speaker to back-channel with laughter. In this case the first speaker gives a back-channel cue starting at second 0 and which culminates on second 1.8 by saying "voy a hablar por telefono, eeeh, pero ahorita vuelvo." To this the listener produces a back-channel at second 1.95.
Click on the figure to listen to the audio.
Figure 4: An amusing back-channel cue
speaker1: "I'm going to make a phone call, uh but I'll be right back"
speaker2: hehehe
speaker1: he's going to make us
In this example the typical case is again present, and the back channel response overlaps the next utterance by the speaker. Click on Figure 5 to listen to the audio.
Figure 5 : Overlapped speech
speaker1: yes, it's too much
speaker2: yeah that's a fact