Corpus-Based Theory Development as a Hermeneutic Process - Iterative-Incremental Formation of a Category System Exemplified by a Theory of Commenting

This article describes corpus-based theory development as a hermeneutic process and discusses hermeneutic aspects in the various phases of the process. This is exemplified by the development of a theory of commenting, whose category system is successively built up and abductively differentiated in an iterative-incremental process of generating and testing hypotheses. Methodologically, the focus is on annotation studies combined with corpus-statistical methods. The latter serve theoretical sampling on the one hand and are applied to the specifically selected/formed (sub)corpora for pattern recognition on the other. Hermeneutic-critical aspects are discussed from three perspectives, which include dealing with prior knowledge and existing theories, with the hermeneutic circularity metaphor and with objectification strategies in the interpretative research setting.