The Logographic Analysis of Social Processual Texts

Abstract

This contribution comprises four parts. In part 1 we will describe the object of logographic research as well as the considerations underlying the logographic conceptualisation, processing, and aggregation of textual data. Logographic research involves texts concerning a specific topic which were produced and exchanged within an equally specific context of discourse. Which semantic units and which network of internal references are characteristic of this context? This kind of knowledge allows important conclusions concerning both the psychological and the social structure of human interaction. In part 2 we will present the steps involved in the logographic analysis of texts: which way leads from texts in spoken language to the construction of a coding frame, to conclusions about culturally transmitted offers for perceiving lived reality and imposing some kind of order upon it? We will discuss which parts of the logographic procedure could be described as 'qualitative' and 'quantitative' respectively and in what way this differentiation between the two research traditions can contribute towards an understanding of logographic analysis. In part 3 we will briefly present some examples taken from our research: one study involves letters of complaint about noise; the second study concerns stories about jealousy representing the author-subjects' own experience. In part 4 we will conclude by briefly discussing the part qualitative and quantitative methods play in logographic research. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0101142