ABSTRACT
The three major components of a CHAT transcript are the file headers, the main tier, and the dependent tiers. In this chapter we discuss creating the first major component — the file headers. A computerized transcript in CHAT format begins with a series of “header” lines, which tells us about things such as the date of the recording, the names of the participants, the ages of the participants, the setting of the interaction, and so forth. Most of these header lines occur only at the very beginning of the file. These are what we call “constant headers,” because they refer to information that is constant throughout the file. Other headers can occur along within the main body of the file. These “changeable headers” refer to information that varies during the course of the interaction.
