From words to numbers : narrative, data, and social science
"This book illustrates a set of tools - story grammars, relational data models, and network models - that can be profitably used for the collection, organization, and analysis of narrative data in sociohistorical research. A story grammar, or subject-action-object and their modifiers, is the linguistic tool the author uses to structure narrative for the purpose of collecting data on protest events. Relational database models make such complex data collection schemes practically feasible in a computer environment. Finally, network models are a statistical tool best suited to analyze this type of data. Driven by the metaphors of the journal (from ... to) and the alchemy (words into numbers), the book leads the reader through a number of paths, from substantive to methodological issues, across time and disciplines: sociology, linguistics, literary criticism, history, statistics, computer science, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and political science. The book mitigates its quest for rigor in the social sciences with a subtle irony for that quest."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2004
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004
xxii, 476 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
9780521815208, 9780521541459, 0521815207, 052154145X
52197605
Machine derived contents note: Part I. From Words to Numbers: A Journey: Prologue
1. 'In the beginning, there was the word'
2. Ars memoriae
3: everything is number
Part II. Looking Back: What's in the Numbers?: 4. The word and the world
5. 'A worlde of wordes'
6. Journeys end
catdir.loc.gov Publisher description
catdir.loc.gov Table of contents