Corpora: Release of HCRC Map Task Corpus Annotations

[Jean Carletta]

The Human Communication Research Centre is pleased to announce the
availability of the HCRC Map Task Corpus XML annotations, at

    http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/maptask/

In 1992, the HCRC publicly released the HCRC Map Task Corpus, a corpus
of task-oriented dialogues, on CD. The CDs contained the sound files,
dialogue transcription, and the materials which subjects used to
complete the task.

We are now making HCRC's annotations of the Map Task Corpus publicly
available. These annotations include updated transcription of the
speech, dialogue structure at three levels (moves, games, and transactions),
part of speech tags, syntax,gaze, landmark references, and when the
participants were using their pens. The annotations are represented in
XML using a technique called ``stand-off annotation'' (see
http://www.hcrc.ed.ac.uk/maptask/bidialog-paper.ps).  Pointers to times
in the original sound files allow the speech material to be located easily.

Jean Carletta
Amy Isard
Henry S. Thompson

Human Communication Research Centre
University of Edinburgh