Nur wahrscheinlich oder schon plausibel?

Due to the vagueness and ambiguity of language, meaning formation processes are difficult to formalize: The attribution of meaning takes place not only by considering the surface of the text, but also by drawing on contexts that are difficult to predict in their diversity. Quantitative methods of text analysis are therefore more suitable for exploration than for validation and must in most cases be supplemented by qualitative and interpretative methods. Nevertheless, they do not remain mere tools, but can make a decisive contribution to the hermeneutic process and shape this process. Using an example from medieval German literature, the lyrical subgenre of the Tagelied, it will be shown how methods of probability calculation and diagrammatic visualization, which can be used in topic modelling, for example, are surprisingly well suited to making generic ambiguities visible and mapping typological approaches to questions of genre. The explorative method thus is able to make a significant contribution to the hermeneutic constitution of the object.