From Aal to Zyniker. Personality descriptive type nouns in the German language
- 1 June 1995
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in European Journal of Personality
- Vol. 9 (2) , 135-145
- https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2410090207
Abstract
Up until now it has been assumed that the German language comprises far more personality descriptive adjectives (e.g. cynical) than type nouns (e.g. cynic); cf. the article by Angleitner, Ostendorf and John (1990). The present paper shows that this conclusion is unwarranted. Firstly, it is demonstrated that the German taxonomers considered only a small fraction of the relevant type nouns. Then follows a discussion of why the German language contains a huge number of personality type nouns. Finally, some pitfalls of the lexical approach to personality description are considered.Keywords
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