Accessing the spoken corpus

The acceptability judgment data is available to download through the atlas interface in CSV format or from the project’s API in CSV or JSON formats.

The remaining data consists of:

  1. text (.txt) files of transcribed speech
  2. sound files (.wav) plus transcripts (.trs) generated using Transcriber http://transag.sourceforge.net/

Access to these data is available for researchers on completion of the consent form below.

Researchers can request a subset or all of the data (see below). On return of the form, the relevant files will be transferred to the researcher for download using the University of Glasgow’s large file transfer system.

If you have any questions about accessing the data, please contact scotssyntaxatlas@gmail.com.

    I, ('THE USER'), hereby request permission to to download (for bona fide purposes) the sound files, Transcriber files and text files from the ‘Scots Syntax Atlas’ (‘SCOSYA’), funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC, https://ahrc.ukri.org/).

    I agree by this request to adhere to the following conditions of use:

    1. THE USER acknowledges that SCOSYA is subject to copyright restrictions and agrees to abide by them. SCOSYA is copyrighted in its entirety by Jennifer Smith (P.I. of the AHRC-funded project) and her co-investigators, David Adger and Caroline Heycock. THE USER acknowledges that violations of copyright restrictions may result in legal liability.

    2. THE USER will make no commercial use of SCOSYA sound files, Transcriber files and text files.

    3. THE USER will not redistribute the SCOSYA sound files, Transcriber files and text files to others.

    4. THE USER will not disclose to others the instructions for downloading the corpus files.

    5. THE USER acknowledges that the creators and distributors of SCOSYA make no warranties, express or implied, concerning SCOSYA, including but not limited to their ownership, merchantability, or fitness for a particular purpose. The creators and distributors will not be liable for any direct, consequential, punitive or other damages suffered by THE USER or any other person resulting from the use of the distributed materials.

    6. THE USER will read the relevant documentation describing the SCOSYA data available at https://scotssyntaxatlas.ac.uk. This documentation details important aspects of the data that may impact upon conclusions based on them.

    7. THE USER will obtain the data either for private scholarly research, or for: (i) Scholarly research conducted within a research group; (ii) Teaching purposes.

    You have requested access to data files comprising sound files and/or, Transcriber files and/or text files from the Scots Syntax Atlas project for research purposes. The following is a standard release form for using these materials.

    I accept the following conditions:

    1) Any report based on this corpus will acknowledge the research project in the following format:

    Smith, Jennifer; Adger, David; Aitken, Brian; Heycock, Caroline; Jamieson, E; and Thoms, Gary. 2019. The Scots Syntax Atlas. University of Glasgow. https://scotssyntaxatlas.ac.uk

    2) No information whatsoever (e.g. names, excerpts of interviews) enabling the identification of informants shall be included in my text. Should it be necessary to cite the materials directly (in the sole interest of illustrating a linguistic point), such citation will not exceed several lines, and will be accompanied by an appropriate reference to the excerpt in the corpus.

    3) Materials contained in the corpus will not serve as the basis for personal judgments about the opinions, personality or language of the informants.

    4) I will not attempt to contact the informants, nor to interfere in any way in their lives.

    5) The data will be used by the undersigned only. No part of it will be duplicated, circulated, or otherwise transmitted to any parties outside the context of the project.

    6) It is understood that any work done on this corpus is for the sole purpose of:

    7) I agree to make no additional communication, article, or résumé based on this material – nor any other use thereof – without entering into a separate written agreement to that effect with Professor Smith.

    8) I agree to respect the conditions of use and availability of the corpus, as outlined by Professor Smith.

    9) I agree to provide Professor Smith with citations to my research arising from these materials – along with copies of data files, abstracts, course papers, articles, and slideshows to be held in the lab archives. I agree that I will send these materials to the project email address – scotssyntaxatlas@gmail.com – to be time-stamped and archived.

    10) NO MATERIALS FROM THE PROJECT WILL LEAVE MY POSSESSION. I WILL NOT CREATE DUPLICATE FILES OF THE DATA. ALL FILES WILL BE DELETED FROM MY COMPUTER AND/OR OTHER HARDWARE WHEN I AM FINISHED WITH THIS PROJECT.

    I have understood the conditions outlined in this agreement and agree to abide by them.

    DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY. THE SCOSYA PROJECT COMPILERS, PROGRAMMERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND AUTHORS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS DATABASE AND ITS PROGRAMS HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THE PROGRAMS, RECORDS, AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION. THESE EFFORTS INCLUDE THE DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH AND TESTING OF THE PROGRAMS TO DETERMINE THEIR EFFECTIVENESS. THE SCOSYA PROJECT AND THE COMPILERS, PROGRAMMERS, DISTRIBUTORS, AND AUTHORS MAKE NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH REGARD TO THE PROGRAMS, RECORDS, AND ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION AND ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR APPLICATION. THE USER OF SCOSYA, THEREFORE, EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGES AND AGREES THAT USE OF THE CORPUS IS AT ITS SOLE RISK. THE CORPUS AND RELATED DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND AND THE LICENSOR EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES (I) OF COMMERCIAL UTILITY OR (II) OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN THE CORPUS WILL MEET THE USER'S REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE CORPUS WILL BE ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE CORPUS WILL BE CORRECTED. FURTHERMORE, THE LICENSOR DOES NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE CORPUS OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR OTHERWISE. NO ORAL OR WRITTEN INFORMATION OR ADVICE GIVEN BY THE LICENSOR OR THE LICENSOR'S AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE WILL CREATE A WARRANTY OR IN ANY WAY INCREASE THE SCOPE OF THIS WARRANTY. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO THE USER. THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTES AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE CONDITIONS OF USE OF THE CORPUS.

    LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, TORT, CONTRACT, OR OTHERWISE, WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE CORPUS OR RELATED DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE LICENSOR OR THE LICENSOR'S AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO THESE CONDITIONS OF USE. IN NO EVENT WILL THE LICENSOR'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO THE USER FOR ALL DAMAGES, LOSSES, AND CAUSES OF ACTION (WHETHER IN CONTRACT, TORT INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, OR OTHERWISE) EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY THE LICENSEE FOR THE CORPUS.

    OR

    I request access to:

    Text (.txt) files:

    Sound files (.wav) plus transcripts (.trs):