This chapter surveys and discusses research methods and research designs commonly and saliently adhered to within the field of intercultural pragmatics. A particular focus will be on data collection methods and qualitative analytical approaches to empirical data, with the guiding question of this chapter being: What are the most saliently trending research methods employed in current and recent research in intercultural pragmatics?As such, this chapter represents a hub among the contributions assembled in thishandbook in that it intertwines with or at least closes contingent spaces between topics and issues discussed across the five strands covered. Thus, this chapter not only falls back on what has been established concerning the underlying theoretical foundations of the field and its methodologies as a whole, but also sets reference points to key issues in “doing” research in intercultural pragmatics. Sections included offer an extensive review of the massive body of literature on conventional and relevant terminology as well as salient aspects of data collection and data analysis in (intercultural) pragmatics overall. The core sections present research designs ranging from introspective, observational, and extracted data to (non- )experimental data elicitation techniques and tasks.

Chapter 4 provides a summary of the datatypes studied in cross-cultural pragmatics and the fundamental methodologies used in the field. First, we systematically discuss different types of data, by arguing that the conventional categories of ‘naturally occurring’ and ‘elicited’ data are equally important for cross-cultural pragmatic research. The relationship between these two categories is particularly important to discuss: while using elicited data has been subject to major criticisms in the field of pragmatics, we promote an inclusive cross-cultural pragmatics approach, which should not exclude any datatype. Following our overview of datatypes, we summarise qualitative and quantitative approaches frequented in the field. The chapter explains in detail why it is pivotal for the cross-cultural pragmatician to attempt to combine qualitative and quantitative research if she wants to compare language use in a rigorous and replicable way.