Читать книгу Bilingual Couples in Conversation - Silja Ang-Tschachtli - Страница 35

Once transcribed, the interviews were inserted into a software application which assists in the management and analysis of large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data (MAXQDA 12MAXQDA). For the coding and the analysis, I proceeded by topic, as each topic is linked to a different field of previous linguistic work, and required different methods of analysis. For each topic, a separate code system was developed, and all relevant segments were coded in MAXQDA 12. In some cases, these segments took the form of longer extracts which were then analysed quantitatively; in other cases, certain features (e.g. laughter) or individual shorter expressions (e.g. code-switches, expressions of emotions, or swearwords) were coded and assigned to categories. Whenever possible, I tried to follow my data in the creation of a code system, rather than creating categories and attempting to fit my data into them (see also Hay 2000: 727). For instance, I looked at each instance of laughter and tried to determine the main trigger; if none of the categories I had already established was suitable, a new one was created. Some of the coding could be carried out automatically (e.g. backchannel signals and suprasegmental features were auto-coded for each participant), but most of it had to be completed manually. In this case, I tended to use the search function and then to assign segments to the appropriate category.

The main advantages of coding segments in MAXQDA 12 were that I could find and draw together everything belonging to one topic (for the qualitative analysis), and that I was also able to count and compare features easily (for the quantitative analysis). In addition, I was able to revisit each coding, for instance, if I wanted to view the context, or if I decided to subdivide a category. Another major benefit of the system was that I could search, code, and finally analyse features for each speaker individually, as the software is able to recognize which speaker a turn belongs to in a transcript involving several speakers. This was particularly helpful in the analysis of quantitative elements for each individual speaker, such as laughter or suprasegmental features.