LEXICAL APPROACH TO PERSONALITY .1. HISTO RICAL SURVEY OF TAXONOMIC RESEARCH

The authoress is concerned with theoretical presumptions of psycholing uistic study of personality, as well as with its limitations and diffe rent approaches to the formation of taxonomies of personality descript ors. The best known list of personality relevant terms according to th e in advance selected criteria set up by Allport and Odbert, was prece ded by attempts at the selection of personality descriptors in German and English. Cattell took up the preceding research and, by means of c luster analysis, identified the most general dimensions of personality anchored in language. Cattell's research has inspired a number of oth er scientists who - on the basis of the by him classified variables - arrived at different factor solution. Though the number and interpreta tion of individual factors are discussed, the majority of authors agre e with the fact that five factors - Extraversion, Agreeableness, Consc ientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect and/or Culture - can be identified on the basis of the lexicon analysis. Effort aimed at ve rifying the five-factor personality structure on the basis of selected variables independently of Cattell has become an incentive for Norman who set up new taxonomic system. Taxonomy in English was also develop ed by Goldberg, who classified not only the personality relevant adjec tives, but also substantives. Taxonomy of personality descriptors in D utch has already been done in case of adjectives, substantives, and ve rbs. The most thoroughly worked out taxonomic system is the German one , used by taxonomists on other languages (Italian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech), too. The concluding chapters deal with the Russian taxonomicly oriented research, as well as with the Czech taxonomy. Taxonomy of pe rsonal descriptors is the first step in understanding personality trai ts that are coded in language and in the way, in which these traits ar e structured.