This study defines and comments the concepts of given (data) and taken (capta) in empirical researches that are supported by quantities (scales, questionnaires and experiments) and qualities (descriptions and interviews). Our argument is that data are essentially different from capta and that the difference is placed in the logical relations between evidence and interpretation. Also, that logical relations are defined as language tropes: similarity (causality relations), metaphor (representation relations), metonymy (observable relations) and synecdoche (imaginative relations). The logical relations set a limit on contexts in which quantities and qualities work as moving parts from a whole, functioning as reversible instances. However, quantities and qualities preserve their logical specificity, which should be considered by the investigators. The exam of the communicational and logical relations between evidence and interpretation seems to be a useful resource to sustain the judgment decision in any kind of research study.
methodology; epistemology; semiotic phenomenology