A procedure for investigating verbal form

Abstract

Toward the goal of studying communicative behaviors and meaning simultaneously, this essay reports the development of a procedure for investigating significant form in verbal communications. Called Verbal Systems Analysis, the procedure operationalizes two of the central concepts of form in Kenneth Burke's theory of symbolic action—his pentadic ratios and the circular “logologic” of identification and division. Definitions of categories, coding rules, training procedures, and applications in three different studies are reported.