Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Analysis in Qualitative Research with Data of Human Language

Abstract

This article presents the Paradigmatic and Syntagmatic Analysis (PSA), a scientific approach/ method for qualitative analysis of human language data. Created in Applied Linguistics, this inductive-deductive product fills gaps in well-known approaches and methods called Ethnography and Grounded theory. It enables one to answer research questions and generate data-driven theory, considering the data totality and their specificities, with analytical synthesis and without reproduction, mirroring and paraphrasing of data. It consists of two main phases, in the first - the paradigmatic one -, by vertically examining the data and creating classifications, which, in the end, are arranged harmonically in hypernyms and their hyponyms under a given dimension. In the second phase - the syntagmatic one - the researcher makes the assertions (answers to the research questions), using the classifications elaborated in the first phase and taking into account the epistemological and ontological power that the language exerts. As an approach/method, this scientific path is based on dialogical intersubjectivation and emancipatory ethical principles.

Keywords

• human language
• qualitative research
• paradigmatic and syntagmatic analysis (PSA)