Perspektivische Textanalyse

To an ever-increasing extent, in scientific investigations of various kinds are data collected, which consists of verbal expressions. They may have been generated through verbal presentations, personal interviews, open questions or written accounts. Therefore, it is not unusual that an investigator is confronted with data collections that appear to be “unstructured” and of an extent that it seems to be an insurmountable task to extract the information content with so-called informal methods, like content analysis. However, those difficulties can be bridged over with a discussion of the function of language. But this would require a stance on a strategy that can cope with the cognitive ability of the individual information provider, i.e., to express an idea or an opinion, without loosing in formal capacity and stringency.