Recognising and applying equivalent meanings: an example of creating a codebook from a language-game of extremism in the Czech Republic

• Published in: Quality & quantity Vol. 57; no. 2; pp. 1501 - 1518
• Main Author: Stulík, Ondřej
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Actors; Actresses; Data collection; Data entry; Equivalence; Extremism; Games; Meaning; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Research subjects; Social Sciences; Czech Republic; Data collection; Necessary characteristics; Equivalence; Extremism
• ISSN: 0033-5177; 1573-7845
• DOI: 10.1007/s11135-022-01418-5

In this article, I present tools for more accurate data collection in selected types of research. My premise is that tools for identifying the equivalence of meaning of different data units can minimise the room for potential error in data collection. A major error may be omitting the data that are semantically equivalent to the research subject and thus wrongly excluding them from the empirical corpus. I focus on the natural language of the actors as a data source domain, specifically on the equivalence of the meaning of various phenomena. The presentation of tools goes from a reflection on meaning as such to the meaning of words, to their equivalence in specific language-games, and to the identification of the purpose of a phenomenon and the determination of the equivalence of such purpose. This scheme shows that the identification of the purpose of a phenomenon is the key to the implication of equivalence. I demonstrate the practical application of the presented tools on the creation of a codebook in research on extremism in the Czech Republic, complemented with recommendations on replicating such a procedure and applying it to other data.