The Nature of Language in Classification--Footnote 1

Footnote 1

This problem extends beyond the realm of psychopathology. Type nouns that refer to people tend to be deprecatory (Wierzbicka, 1986). Therefore, people generally dislike being described using type nouns. For example, one might hear, "My son is not a dimwit, he is just a little slow!" While negative type nouns ("jerk," "creep") greatly outnumber the positive ("angel," "saint"), both positive and negative adjectives exist in abundance. Research has been conducted on the descriptive and evaluative aspects of personality-relevant adjectives in English and German (Saucier, Ostendorf, and Peabody, 1998).

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