The following are brief summarizations of the contents of each of the 60 discourse segments included in volumes 1-4 of the Santa Barbara Corpus. Participant names cited are pseudonyms, corresponding to the speaker labels used in the transcriptions.

Part 1 [2] [3] [4]

SBC001 Actual Blacksmithing
This is a conversation recorded in rural Hardin, Montana. Mae Lynne is a student of equine science, and is the main speaker. She is telling Lenore (a visitor and near stranger) about her studies. Doris, Mae Lynne's mother, is doing housework, but joins the conversation near the end to discuss friends of their family.

SBC002 Lambada
After-dinner conversation among four friends in San Francisco, California. Participants are in their late twenties or early thirties. Harold and Jamie are a married couple, Miles is a doctor, and Pete is a graduate student from Southern California.

SBC003 Conceptual Pesticides
A conversation among three friends who are preparing dinner together, recorded in Southern California. Roy and Marilyn are a married couple, and Pete is a friend visiting from out of town. All participants are in their early thirties.

SBC004 Raging Bureaucracy
Family conversation recorded in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The primary participants are three sisters all in their twenties.

SBC005 A Book About Death
A conversation between a couple who are lying in bed, recorded in Santa Barbara, California.

SBC006 Cuz
A very lively interaction between two female cousins in their mid-thirties, recorded in Los Angeles, California.

SBC007 A Tree's Life
Late-night conversation between two sisters, recorded in Montana.

SBC008 Tell the Jury that
Task related interaction--an attorney preparing two witnesses to testify in a criminal trial. Recorded in San Francisco, California. Rebecca is a lawyer, June and Rickie are the witnesses, and Arnold is Rickie's husband.

SBC009 Zero Equals Zero
Task-related talk, a teenage couple recorded in Mobile, Alabama. Kathy is helping her boyfriend Nathan prepare for a math test.

SBC010 Letter of Concerns
A business conversation recorded in New Mexico. Brad and Phil are board members of a local arts society. Phil wants to talk business, while Brad keeps trying to leave to pick up his wife who's waiting for him at a bookstore.

SBC011 This Retirement Bit
A conversation among three friends before lunch, recorded in Tucson, Arizona. All three participants are retired women; Samantha (Sam) is 72, Doris is 83, and Angela is 90.

SBC012 American Democracy is Dying
University lecture, recorded in Riverside, California. This is a Chicano Studies class; the professor is the primary participant, although it is a small, summer school class, and nine members of the class occasionally interact.

SBC013 Appease the Monster
This is a family conversation/birthday party, recorded in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The five participants are family members: Kendra (the birthday girl) and Kevin are siblings, Ken and Marci are their parents, and Wendy is Kevin's wife. This segment is highly interactional and contains a lot of overlap.

SBC014 Bank Products
Task related talk—this is a loan officers meeting, recorded in a bank in a small town in rural southern Illinois. Joe and Fred are loan officers working for the bank. Jim is the president of the bank, and Kurt is a board member.

Part 1 [2] [3] [4]