{"title":"The lexical semantics of personality words: On ‘shy’ and ‘outgoing’","authors":"Alena Kazmaly","doi":"10.1016/j.lingua.2024.103695","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study addresses linguistic and cross-disciplinary issues connected with the study of personality trait words, e.g., <em>shy</em>, <em>selfish</em>, <em>outgoing</em>. Although the personality lexicon has long been seen as a primary concern for the field of psychology, it is argued here that the study of personality words belongs primarily within the domain of linguistics and can be performed by methods of lexical semantics and corpus analysis. To demonstrate this, two English personality adjectives representative of the personality dimension Extraversion (namely, <em>shy</em> and <em>outgoing</em>) are analysed using a corpus-assisted Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. The results highlight the status of the English words as folk concepts. The risks of excessive reliance on such folk concepts in personality research are demonstrated by the brief comparison with Russian, and alternative ways forward are outlined.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47955,"journal":{"name":"Lingua","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002438412400024X/pdfft?md5=2122dc7aa51b3a42c4ba0d3b3a5629ab&pid=1-s2.0-S002438412400024X-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Lingua","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002438412400024X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study addresses linguistic and cross-disciplinary issues connected with the study of personality trait words, e.g., shy, selfish, outgoing. Although the personality lexicon has long been seen as a primary concern for the field of psychology, it is argued here that the study of personality words belongs primarily within the domain of linguistics and can be performed by methods of lexical semantics and corpus analysis. To demonstrate this, two English personality adjectives representative of the personality dimension Extraversion (namely, shy and outgoing) are analysed using a corpus-assisted Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. The results highlight the status of the English words as folk concepts. The risks of excessive reliance on such folk concepts in personality research are demonstrated by the brief comparison with Russian, and alternative ways forward are outlined.
期刊介绍:
Lingua publishes papers of any length, if justified, as well as review articles surveying developments in the various fields of linguistics, and occasional discussions. A considerable number of pages in each issue are devoted to critical book reviews. Lingua also publishes Lingua Franca articles consisting of provocative exchanges expressing strong opinions on central topics in linguistics; The Decade In articles which are educational articles offering the nonspecialist linguist an overview of a given area of study; and Taking up the Gauntlet special issues composed of a set number of papers examining one set of data and exploring whose theory offers the most insight with a minimal set of assumptions and a maximum of arguments.