Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Concept and Practice of Written Text Documentary Content Analysis (Wtdca)

Abstract

Content analysis, restricted within the limits of written textual documents (WTDCA), is a field which is greatly in need of extensive interdisciplinary research. This would clarify certain concepts, especially those concerned with "text", as a new central nucleus of semiotic research, and "content", or the informative power of text. The objective reality (syntax) of the written document should be, in the cognitive process that all content analysis entails, interpreted (semantically and pragmatically) in an intersubjective manner with regard to the context, the analyst's knowledge base and the documentary objectives. The contributions of semiolinguistics (textual), logic (formal) and psychology (cognitive) are fundamental to the conduct of these activities. The criteria used to validate the results obtained complete the necessary conceptual reference panorama.

Documentary abstracting: Toward a methodological model

“…The synthesis, or analytical description, consists of the description of content derived from the analysis. This is the most delicate and difficult step; although the previous analytical activities can be subjected to more or less rigorous techniques, it is practically impossible to establish techniques of synthesis that are valid for all types of document and abstractor (Pinto Molina, 1993). This phase, according to some experts, is the authentic abstracting phase and is directly related to a specific property of natural language, namely elasticity of discourse.…”

Interdisciplinary perspectives in subject analysis

“…She therefore develops her model with supporting contributions from the three disciplines: Cognitive psychology, because textual analysis is a cognitive process; Logic, because all operations involved in the process must be rationalized; and Linguistics for obvious reasons. In a pedagogic fashion, Pinto Molina (1995) distinguishes three basic stages in textual deconstruction:…”

“…The two types of mental processing, regarded by some as models of the reading process, are contrary and complementary: the bottom-up type is inductive, guided by data, and models linear reading, which goes from parts of a text to the whole; the top-down type is deductive, conceptually oriented and moves in the opposite direction, employing the vantage of the reader's knowledge base. The double action integrates perceptions and comprehension (Pinto Molina, 1995;Cole, 1994).…”

A prática de indexação: análise da evolução de tendências teóricas e metodológicas

“…Iniciando a abordagem dos processos cognitivos salientamos que são objeto de estudo da Psicologia Cognitiva, constituindo-se de: [...] processos e estruturas mentais implicados na aquisição, no processamento e no uso do conhecimento ou da informação, entre os quais podem ser diferenciados os processos mentais básicos (memória e atenção), as representações mentais (imaginação, formulação de proposições e estabelecimento de categorias) e os processos mentais complexos (compreensão, raciocínio e solução de problemas) (PINTO MOLINA, 1994).…”