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The paper deals with the role of context and its features in the interpretation of ironically used metalinguistic (reflexive) expressions in the Russian, Polish, and English languages. Although contextual cues have always been a major topic of interest to irony scholars, more research seems to be needed on how context interacts with a metalinguistic expression and how it indicates that such an expression is to be interpreted ironically. It is clear that the most natural context in the situation in question is speech (in a broad sense) that is referred to in particular metalinguistic expressions. Therefore, the main goal of the paper is to establish the crucial features of linguistic units that could be named and described by metalinguistic expressions and to specify relations between the former and the latter. The main criteria used to classify the examples that are analyzed in the paper are 1) the type of the linguistic unit in the context, 2) the type of contradiction between the metalinguistic expression and the context, and 3) the limits of the context that is required for ironical interpretation of the metalinguistic expression.

This paper aims to investigate the what-cleft construction with adjectives and establish its structural, semantic, and distributional features by adopting frame semantics and usage-based construction grammar, exploiting the data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), and applying quantitative corpus-based methodology. To this end, the author extracts the occurrences of the What be ADJ be-construction from a large corpus of naturally-occurring data, determines its structural, semantic, distributional, and discourse-functional properties, and identifies adjectives that are strongly associated with the construction in question. The paper makes a significant contribution to a growing body of literature on the what-cleft construction by conducting a qualitative and quantitative analysis of one of its variants, a grammatical pattern with adjectives that has not been hitherto investigated in much detail.

The paper deals with the specifics of outsiders’ laughter in the book Unknown letters (Неизвестные письма/Unbekannte Briefe, Russian 2014, German 2017) by a Russian-German writer Oleg Yuryev. In particular, it analyzes how Russian cultural and historical traumas of the 20th century were reinterpreted in the book from the perspective of an ironical outsider. In doing so, it focuses on a fictional letter by the writer Leonid Dobychin, which is contextualized with fictional letters of Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz and Ivan Pryzhov, representing previous historical and cultural periods. Yuryev’s ironic reflections on the Russian historical reality and literary scene of the 20th century manifest themselves at different levels, from the positioning of outsiders’ laughter in relation to the official and marginal hierarchies of the literary canon to the postmodernist play with the traditions of literary classics. In addition, the paper addresses the inter- and/or transcultural aspect of outsiders’ laughter in Yuryev’s book.

This paper deals with the word-formation of Mayakovsky’s neologisms, the principles of their composition and also the objects subjected to neologization. Attention is also paid to the Nachleben of these neologisms in contemporary Russian, based on the research into the Russian National Corpus. The paper is a result of the analysis of all Mayakovsky’s neologisms listed in A. Humesky’s book Majakovskij and His Neologisms (1964), except for those originated by the simple connection of two words or word components. The results were compared with the most recent work dealing with Mayakovsky’s neologisms, V. N. Valavin’s dictionary (Word-formation of Mayakovsky. An Attempt at a Dictionary of Occasiоnalisms). It is argued that the main word-formation principle is that of composition (substantives and adjectives) and suffixation (verbs), that even today many neologisms show surprising vitality, and also that not all of the neologisms ascribed to Mayakovsky are indeed his authorial creations.

The present paper is devoted to the problem of study of the language means of realization of rhetorical strategies of business communication in their correlation with zones of influence of a human being. The business strategies – informative, regulative-directive, argumentative-persuasive, manipulative, of positive self-representation – and their correlation with zones of influence of a human being: rational-logical, volitional, psycho-emotional, moral-axiological, and aesthetic-imagery have been researched. The purpose of the paper is to find out correlations of rhetorical strategies and tactics of business communication and zones of influence of a human being. The object of study is rhetorical strategies and tactics of business communication and their correlations with zones of influence of a human being. The subject of the study is language means of realization of rhetorical strategies and tactics of business communication in their correlations with zones of influence of a human being. The methods applied include rhetorical, contextual, and discourse-analysis, methods of classification and systematization. Business communication is organized on the principles of co-operation and politeness. Its intentional nature molds business genre forms and influences the choice of rhetorical strategies and tactics. Rhetorical strategies and tactics, which are realized in certain language means, correlate with rational-volitional-emotional sphere of a human being. The perspectives of the research are to conduct a rhetorical analysis of the academic communication and to approve the results of the research at practical teaching of academic and business talk to Master students.

In this study, the focus is placed on the semantic content of several concepts in the language consciousness of Polish and Russian speakers revealed by means of the free associative test. Particular attention is paid to the real content of the concepts bezpieczeństwo and безопасность. The paper reports on the results of the comparative analysis of data obtained by means of a free non-directional associative experiment. The distribution of cognitive characteristics according to the degree of brightness in the structure of the concepts is presented. Special attention is paid to identifying similarities and differences in the semantic content and the semantic volume of the investigated concepts. The examined data, taken from associative dictionaries, allow for describing the dynamics of the process of conceptualization as well as for presenting the peculiarities of both concepts. The paper further discusses the formats of the conceptualization of bezpieczeństwo and безопасность and the language dynamics of the objectification of these formats.

The paper is devoted to a holistic analysis of the scientific-organisational and scientific-didactic activity of the Head of the Institute of Russian and Ukrainian philology, Professor Andrzej Sitarski (2008–2019). In the paper, the author presents her reflections on the status of ego-texts along with their categories. The authorʹs attention is primarily focused on the evaluation of Professor Sitarski’s role in the upbringing of talented linguists, as well as on his personal contribution to the development of Poznań Ukrainian studies. The in-depth analysis is conducted on the basis of the category of memory that is depicted in ego-text genres, including the genre of memoirs-dedications. Professor Sitarski has an outstanding linguistic personality of a bilingual that boils down to particular verbal and nonverbal properties represented through his psychotype – his abilities of the elite linguistic character of a scientist and lecturer of Russian language are distinctive for him.

“I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me […]. The Lord is on my side” (Ps 118[117]:5–6). On the Lexical Variation of Church Slavonic Psalter Redactions: The Case of Translations of the Greek ὁ ἀντιλή(μ)πτωρ, ἡ ἀντίλη(μ)ψις, ἡ βοήθεια, ὁ βοηθός, ἡ λύτρωσις, ὁ λυτρωτής, ῥυόμενος, ὁ ῥυστής, ὁ ὑπερασπισμóς and ὁ ὑπερασπιστής. A Quantitative Approach This article is another one in a series of studies dealing with the lexical variation of Church Slavonic Psalter redactions. The paper focuses on the vocabulary used by man to address God as his protector, helper, saviour etc., and analyses the (Old) Church Slavonic equivalents of such Greek lexemes as ἀντιλή(μ)πτωρ, ἀντίλη(μ)ψις, βοήθεια, βοηθός, λύτρωσις, λυτρωτής, ῥυόμενος, ῥυστής, ὑπερασπισμóς and ὑπερασπιστής. It also points out the Hebrew equivalents of the investigated Greek and (O)CS words. The study concentrates on the quantitative aspect of the use of the vocabulary under discussion, with qualitative issues (semantics / contextual conditions) remaining in the background. „W udręce wołałem do Pana, a On mnie wysłuchał […]. Pan moim wspomożycielem” (Ps 118[117]:5–6). O leksykalnej wariantywności psałterzowych redakcji cerkiewnosłowiańskich. Na przykładzie tłumaczeń gr. ὁ ἀντιλή(μ)πτωρ, ἡ ἀντίλη(μ)ψις, ἡ βοήθεια, ὁ βοηθός, ἡ λύτρωσις, ὁ λυτρωτής, ῥυόμενος, ὁ ῥυστής, ὁ ὑπερασπισμóς i ὁ ὑπερασπιστής. Ujęcie ilościowe To kolejny artykuł w cyklu opracowań traktujących o leksykalnej wariantywności psałterzowych redakcji cs. Tym razem uwagę skupia się na grupie słownictwa, którym człowiek zwraca się do Boga jako swego protektora, pomocnika, wybawiciela etc. Analizie poddaje się użycia (s)cs. ekwiwalentów takich gr. leksemów, jak: ἀντιλή(μ)πτωρ, ἀντίλη(μ)ψις, βοήθεια, βοηθός, λύτρωσις, λυτρωτής, ῥυόμενος, ῥυστής, ὑπερασπισμóς i ὑπερασπιστής. Dodatkowo wskazuje się na odpowiedniki hebrajskie badanych słów greckich i (s)cs. W rozważaniach nacisk kładzie się na aspekt ilościowy użyć badanego słownictwa, kwestie jakościowe (semantykę / uwarunkowania kontekstu) przesuwając na plan dalszy.

The object of description in the following paper is the lexeme język. Linguistic analysis has been broadened by medical context, in which the author presents the content regarding the tongue as the first part of the digestive system, as a sense of taste, and finally, as vocal apparatus. For this purpose, the most important issues connected with the structure, physiology and pathology of the tongue have been presented. The second part of the discussion has been dedicated to the place of the noun język, along with its synonyms and derived forms in old and contemporary general Polish language, as well as dialects. The final part contains remarks on the functioning of the word język in Polish phraseology. This lexeme, as a polysemantic unit, happens to be the component of numerous petrified word combinations, whose meaning reflects the variety of references and contexts preserved in old and contemporary Polish culture.

Scientists describe the way young people (school children and university students) think today, as a fundamentally superficial, fragmentary, illogical mosaic. This mode of thinking significantly differs from the conceptual thinking specific to previous generations. Easy access to Internet content and electronic technologies induces students to plagiarize and to resign from independent action. The paper presents fragments of essays and exam tests bearing traces of Internet content manipulation. This practice is not considered as unethical by a number of students. However difficult it may seem to efficiently counteract the habit of copying and pasting material available online, it can be channeled into appropriate approaches and methods. To accommodate these recent changes in cognitive mechanisms, the educational material, and the theoretical elements which are offered to the modern pupils and students, one should intensively focus on contextualizing fragmentary information, providing records in the modernized forms such as modules, flowcharts, algorithms, and mind maps. This approach may help students overcome the inconsistency in the reception and reproduction of the information and avoid serious mistakes in their comprehension of the presented facts. The adaptation of the teaching techniques can form in students the skills of extracting the most important facts, following cause and effect relationships, and structuring the data accordingly.

The paper presents the poems by Nikolay Karamzin (1766–1826), which refer to hope. They include the following groups of texts: 1) reflection poems: To myself (1795), The song (1795), The hope (1796), To an unfaithful (1796), Sorrow and joy (1797), The coast (1802); 2) occasional poems: about the Tsar Pavel I (1796), about G. Khovanski (1796) and about P. Pelski (1803); 3) poems touching upon the life of a poet and poetry: To a poor poet (1796) and The talents (1796). Some poems are autobiographical (The coast was written after the death of Karamzin’s first wife). The hope, which is based on a comparison of a human’s life to a journey, is considered the most meaningful of his texts. According to Karamzin, life is filled with joy and sorrow, expectation and disappointment, but hope makes the plans easier to achieve, and brings a man closer to the goal. The meaning of his poems is optimistic after all. Karamzin’s letters to Ivan Dmitriev, a poet and a friend, serve as an interpretive background in the article.

The aim of this paper is to present the literary theme of hope in the works of the Soviet Russian rock poet Igor Talkov (1956–1991). The poet’s poems as well as fragments of texts from the author’s prose serve as examples. In the course of analyzing the literary legacy of the composer, the author of the article distinguishes the following images of hope: the theme of hope conditioned by striving to fulfil his role in a dignified way in the arena of life; the theme of hope for the immortality of the poet’s fame and poetry; an inverted image of hope, interpreted as a loss of delusions; the theme of hope leading to victory in the unequal struggle of two ambivalent forces: Good and Evil; the theme of hope which is faith in a better life. Moreover, the conducted research shows that the poet, recalling the literary image of hope in his work, repeatedly referred to biblical texts and the works of the authors of the Golden Age, which, as works by Igor Talkov, allows to distinguish another characteristic feature of the presented speech master.

The aim of this paper is to analyze an increasingly dangerous phenomenon in modern times – the Internet addiction – in the context of contemporary Russian literature. It seems that in this light, the work of Viktor Pelevin can serve as a perfect example of a literary voice in the discussion about the condition of the modern world. The present paper uses the findings of modern technology experts (e.g. Clifford Stoll), philosophers, and sociologists (e.g. Jean Baudrillard, Kazimierz Krzysztofek). In Viktor Pelevin’s novel entitled Love for Three Zuckerbrins (Любовь к трeм цукербринам, 2014) the author continues his analysis of the problem, already marked in The Helmet of Horror (Шлем ужаса: Креатифф о Тесее и Минотавре, 2005), centered on the impact of the development of the latest technologies on human beings. While in the author’s earlier works this issue remained in the sphere of predictions and guesses, here it is unequivocally resolved to the detriment of the human individual. By touching upon the question of popular games for people, Pelevin shows their real role – playing with people. In this context the abovementioned attraction to simple entertainment has irreversible effects – a win in an Internet game means a failure in real life. While advocating unequivocally on the side of the opponents of the adulation for cyberspace, Pelevin points out that a complete unification with it will lead to the end of humanity.

The paper is dedicated to some selected units of biblical origin in the Polish language, namely fixed word combinations (idiomatic expressions). The author is trying to answer the question whether the collection of such units has the qualities of a closed set, or demonstrates a contemporary tendency to multiply its resources. What is essential for this description is the division into primary and secondary units of biblical origin. Apart from historical data and conditions, which are linked with this issue of Polish phraseology, the paper also contains several examples of the processes, as a result of which the language acquired new phrases of biblical origin.

The material basis of the paper are the names of Polish female associations from the 30s of the 20th century. The analysis involves components used to expose feminine qualities – general names (kobieta, pani, niewiasta – ‘woman, lady’), as well as detailed ones, which were categorised according to the information they contain. These are the elements of the world, which in addition to gender, constitute a basis for communality of the members: social and professional status, educational background, participation in military activities, social activity sphere, or common interests. The material presented in the paper shows that in the Second Polish Republic the need for exposing femininity and emphasising communality was very strong in the names of associations.

The paper is concerned with the aspects of communication during the acts of worship by Russian Catholics. The liturgy and rites are performed in contemporary Russian language. The material was excerpted from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The paper provides a description of the liturgical model of interpersonal communication during services and the linguistic indicators of its components. The units were grouped according to the criterion of participation in the communication situation involving the sender, the receiver and the communication channel, i.e. liturgy.

The paper refers to one of the types of diagrammatic iconicity singled out on the basis of the similarity of the form of the sign in a sequential order to the content. The text discusses coordinate and subordinate phrases which embody the principle. The paper emphasizes the differences existing between them in terms of the freedom of order of structural components. Further, it compares the source text and the target text applying the sequential order principle as tertium comparationis.

On the equivalents of the Greek ὁ ναόϛ, ἡ ἐκκλησία, τό ἁγίασμα, τό ἁγιαστήριον and ἡ ἁγιωσύνη in CS Psalter redactions The paper refers to the lexical variety of translations reflected in CS redactions of the Book of Psalms. It is focused on semantic and quantitative analysis of the use of Slavonic equivalents of the Greek ὁ ναόϛ, ἡ ἐκκλησία, τό ἁγίασμα, τό ἁγιαστήριον and ἡ ἁγιωσύνη (i.e., of vocabulary with the denotations: ‘sanctuary, temple, place of living/habitation of God’ and also ‘community of the faithful with the Lord, Church’) in selected representative CS redactions of the Book of Psalms: archaic, mixed (archaic and Russian), Russian (or East-Bulgarian), Norov, Athonite and Cyprian. The paper shows resemblances as well as differences among the confronted Psalters in the choice of the words considered and gives explanation of the uses observed. O odpowiednikach gr. ὁ ναόϛ, ἡ ἐκκλησία, τό ἁγίασμα, τό ἁγιαστήριον, ἡ ἁγιωσύνη w psałterzowych redakcjach cerkiewnosłowiańskich Artykuł dotyczy leksykalnej wariantywności przekładów zawartych w cs. redakcjach Księgi Psalmów. Koncentruje się na semantycznej i ilościowej analizie użyć słowiańskich odpowiedników gr. ὁ ναόϛ, ἡ ἐκκλησία, τό ἁγίασμα, τό ἁγιαστήριον, ἡ ἁγιωσύνη (tj. słownictwa z zakresu oznaczeń ‘świętego przybytku, budynku świątynnego, miejsca zamieszkania/przebywania Boga’, a także ‘zgromadzenia wiernych z Panem, Kościoła’) w wybranych reprezentantach cs. redakcji psałterzowych: archaicznej, mieszanej (archaiczno-ruskiej), ruskiej (albo wschodniobułgarskiej), norowskiej, atońskiej i cyprianowskiej. Eksponuje zarówno podobieństwa, jak i różnice w doborze rozpatrywanych leksemów w porównywanych psałterzach oraz podaje interpretację zaobserwowanych użyć.

The paper addresses B. Norman's humorous etymological Russian dictionary. By reanalyzing the morphological structure of Russian words, Norman provides them with knowingly false, amusing interpretations. The paper proposes to investigate the word-formation aspects of Norman’s re-analyzed lexis. It mostly represents an attempt to “build” the false etymological entities into the system of all existing word-formation techniques of the Russian language. Specific features of amusing para-etymology are also identified.

The object of the paper is a comparison of two concepts of Russian common consciousness: “Germans” and “Poles”. To this effect the combinative power of Russian words German and Pole according to electronic Russian National Corpus (http://www. ruscorpora.ru/) was analyzed. The use of these words in such constructions as “As + qualitative adjective + as a German / Pole” (as careful as a German; as courteous as a Pole, etc.); “German / Pole + adjectival noun” (a German pedantry; a Polish sweetness, etc.); “Qualitative adjective + Germans / Poles” (punctual Germans; coquettish Polish women, etc.) demonstrates ethno cultural stereotypes, typical for Russian ordinary consciousness. These stereotypes should be taken into account in the process of intercultural communication.This paper deals with the slang derivations of the modern Russian language, related to the notions of “иностранец”, “инородец”, “провинциал”, “провинция”. Key aspects of the analysis of these language units are the aspects of word formation and the Russian language, due to the permanent extralinguistic factors, there is a large number of expressive ethnonyms.The area of their distribution is the sphere of the various social dialects, hence they get into general use (for example, in colloquial language). Our task is to identify how the derivational features of these formations determine their emotional and expressive color.

In the present paper the analysis of a motif characteristic of the Church-oriented novels, novelettes, stories and sketches – the motif of family discord – is offered. The examination of several literary works of the 1860s and 1870s has shown that it is the depiction of the negative aspects of clergymen's family life that dominates, the reasons for which being different moral principles, hierarchy of values and major life objectives. Usually it is a priest's wife that is presented as a negative character, although the opposite may be also observed. In the paper both the influence of the literary motif of family discord, popular in the realistic literature, is examined and certain facts of everyday life of the Orthodox clergy are presented in order to show the combination of these factors in the Church-oriented literary works.

The paper is devoted to a study of national character in Evelyn Waugh's work The Loved One. The ironic representation of British and American national characters is analyzed in the paper.

This paper discusses the issue of cross-cultural foreign language teaching accentuating Russian Foreign Language Teaching at colleges in Slovakia. In the introduction some ideas on the position and meaning of cross-cultural communication are presented. In the second part there are explanations of the term cross-cultural communication by some linguists and methodists, as well as its implementation on several levels. In the third part attention is focused on the relations between cross-cultural communication and foreign language teaching. The issue of cross-cultural (policultural) didactics is also explained. In the fourth part the problem of cross-cultural teaching methodology is discussed. In the fifth part the focus is on presenting a summary of cross-cultural communication teaching practice in the Department of Russian Studies at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. The paper concludes with a summary of the problems investigated.

While studying a movie novel, one receives the opportunity of tracing the reverse process: the process of the “text on the screen” being turned into the “text on paper”. This seems to become even more interesting considering the fact that cinema is a synthetic art form, where the patterns which affect all the senses of perception are used to create the audio-visual image. When it comes to words, naturally, in the cinema one mostly hears them. The word is, of course, one of the most important means of transferring information, yet not the principal one. In this way literature is entirely different from cinema, as it uses only one way of transferring information (visual – if it is a paper-based book, and auditory – in case one is dealing with an audio-version). Consequently, the process of making a movie novel is connected with converting information from one form into the other. In addition, there is the question about the peculiarities of movie novel poetics considering the fact that the general contents are known to the recipient and, what is more, were perceived with the help of the other senses.

The paper concerns linguistic humour as an aesthetic-cultural category which is at the core of comedy. Linguistic material from contemporary Russian movies and their translations into Polish is analysed. The basic linguistic components creating linguistic humour include neologisms, linguistic games, modifications of phraseological units and intertextual references. The aforementioned components cause many problems in movie translations into a foreign language. The paper attempts to provide an overview of ways of translating.

The paper is aimed at understanding peculiarities of behavior of the Russian literary character. The analysis of the early romantic poem Steno by I.S. Turgenev is defined by its imitating of Byron's Manfred. At the same time, the author of the paper indicates items of difference in the “architectonics of actions” as it is viewed by the Russian and English literary character.

In this paper we endeavour to probe into the life and art of а unique poet and intellectual Symeon of Polotsk. We are dealing with this on the basis of his first still unpublished manuscript, focusing on the panegyrical works. Symeon, the future tutor of Peter the Great was formed in the turbulent times of the 17th century on the eastern lines of the weakening Polish empire. In his thirties he was forced to flee his native Polotsk and took refuge under the wings of tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Moscow. There his talents found an excellent opportunity to flourish. The court of the Romanovs was Fast becoming the cultural and spiritual centre of the absolute monarchy, which was soon to become the powerful Russian empire. The poetry of Symeon took an indispensable part in the burgeoning royal ceremonial. In this the poet not only responded to the realities of the tsar’s court, but shaped new directions in the baroque art and influenced other wordsmiths of his time. The uniqueness of his approach to the panegyrical poetry employs biblical symbols and celestial analogies in order to celebrate the might and wisdom of his master and protector. This paper pays tribute to the indisputable originality of the works

This paper focuses on the concept of boredom in the creative work of one of the significant figures of Soviet underground culture – Elena Shvarts. All the creative heritage – both poetic and prosaic – is treated like a semiotic unity, so that it is possible to see the evolution in understanding such a notion during more than five decades of the poet’s life. While analyzing the five-volume collection by Shvarts, statistical calculation has revealed only 28 cases of using the concept. Even though for Shvarts’s lyrical subjects, who are usually passionate and ecstatically active, boredom is not specific at all, the author sometimes puts this concept in the meaningful center of her creative universe. It could be done both explicably and implacably through the description of “boring” landscapes and events. After close reading of the texts from the five-volume collection, it is claimed that boredom in Shvarts’s oeuvre is strictly associated to the physical (and\or physiological) world, with its routines, wishes and activities. To the contrast, the transcendental world and everything connected to the sacrum, according to Elena Shvarts, cannot be boring.

The aim of this paper it to discuss the techniques employed in modern political Russian verbatim drama, as well as in their performances. Modern verbatim drama seeks to stay relevant and up-to-date by referring to taboos, radical social controversies, and political incidents. So, it becomes an important event of not only cultural but also social life, and it exerts a strong impact on modern Russian society. The aesthetics of the modern verbatim drama is aimed at representing the reality which is absent from official discourse. Such texts as One hour eighteen minutes by Elena Gremina, Three quarters of sadness (Bolotnaya square case) by Polina Borodina, The last party by Anna Dobrovolskaya, and New Antigone by Elena Kostyuchenko openly explore the issues which do not function as part of the public discourse. Thus, they capture the traumatic experiences in order to overcome traumas. These texts take the traumatic events of current political and public life out of the marginal area, and they acquire the status of social statements which give hope for political and social changes, and give rise to unofficial discourse allowing the readers as well as the viewers to define their own opinion related to the traumatizing events.

Constructions with predicates of perception in Slovak and theirs equivalents in Polish The aim of this paper is to present a special type of syntactic constructions in Slovak language, namely, the accusativus cum infinitivo. Constructions of this kind are connected with predicates of visual and auditory perception: Videl Petra bežať., Počul Evu spievať. In the traditional Slovak syntax, the infinitive in this constructions is characterized as a particular sentence element, so-called “doplnok” ‘predicate complement.’ The Polish equivalents of these constructions are subordinate clauses or participle constructions. The second part of the paper presents a Polish-Slovak comparative analysis of these predicates as propositional (semantic) sentence structures, based on Stanisław Karolak’s model. Konstrukcje z predykatami percepcji w języku słowackim i ich ekwiwalenty w języku polskim Artykuł jest próbą opisu szczególnego typu konstrukcji składniowych występujących w języku słowackim, tj. accusativus cum infinitivo, które łączą się z predykatami percepcji wzrokowej i słuchowej: Videl Petra bežať., Počul Evu spievať. Bezokolicznik w takich konstrukcjach jest w tradycji słowackiej opisywany jako odrębna część zdania, tzw. „doplnok”. W języku polskim konstrukcje oddawane są przez zdania podrzędne lub konstrukcje imiesłowowe. W drugiej części artykułu zaprezentowano opis tych predykatów w duchu składni semantycznej w oparciu o model Stanisława Karolaka w ujęciu porównawczym słowacko-polskim.

This paper is an attempt at drawing attention to the first Protestant translation of the whole Bible into Polish, which is traditionally known as Brest Bible or Radziwill Bible, in terms of its significance and place in the history of Polish language. The first part of this work is the introduction of some basic data from the field of origins, history and the state of previous philological research into Brest Bible. The second part of the paper shows the role of the translation in the process of shaping the characteristics of Polish biblical style and the way in which the translators used the richness and potential of the Polish language in the Renaissance. As the source material to complete the research task the author of the paper used some chosen areas of the language in Brest Bible, which included lexis and fixed expressions.

This paper is devoted to the history of a sonnet and bigger collections built of sonnets, a sonnet cycle and a wreath of sonnets, i.e. a specific cyclic work of a particular internal structure based on repeating verses within the whole. Also, a formal diversity of the sonnet form has been presented. The basic variants of the genre include: Italian and French sonnets, as well as an English sonnet in its several forms. Moreover, the rhyme schemes, which are the indicators of those variations, have been analysed, as well as metric patterns most often used in the sonnet. Another issue discussed in the paper is the sound structure in sonnets, i.e. orchestration, especially vocal harmony. Names of poets, who mostly contributed to the codification of the sonnet as a genre and popularizing this form in international literature, have been mentioned. All the ideas are illustrated with examples from the works written by the most distinguished Polish and European poets.

Czech i-Stem Feminine Nouns Ending in -n and Their Development in Older Czech (from 1300 to 1900) In this paper we follow both the functional and formal development of word-formative formants *-snь, *-znь, *-nь during the Old and Middle Czech periods and during the period of the National Revival and afterwards, and the word-formative and formal development of Czech i-stem feminines with the component -n- during the same period. These nouns are formed by derivation using the suffixes mentioned above or by conversion using the grammatical formant *-ь, and, after the disappearance of the softness correlation, they identically end in the form of direct singular cases on the -n nasal. In order to eliminate alternations of the morphological base, they change their ending in these forms from -(e)n to -(e)ň during their development. As a result, in the later developmental stages of the language, they converge formally to the Old Czech ja-stem feminines originally ending in -ně or -ně/-eň, which also changed their forms nom./acc. sg. in favour of the ending -eň during the development. At the same time, the no longer productive suffixes -n, -ně (in Proto-Slavic *-nьja) and partly also -sn, -zn (Modern Czech -seň, -zeň) merge into a new, self-applying suffix -(e)ň. Czeskie rzeczowniki żeńskie z tematem -i zakończone na -n i ich rozwój w starszych okresach rozwoju języka czeskiego (1300–1900) Niniejszy artykuł pokazuje zarówno funkcjonalny i formalny rozwój formantów słowotwórczych *-snь, *-znь, *-nь w okresie staro- i średnioczeskim oraz w okresie odrodzenia narodowego i poodrodzeniowym, jak również słowotwórczy i formalny rozwój czeskich rzeczowników żeńskich z tematem -i z komponentem -n- w tym czasie. Analizowane rzeczowniki są tworzone przez derywację za pomocą wymienionych sufiksów lub przez konwersję za pomocą formantu gramatycznego *-ь, a po zaniku miękkości w przypadkach niewymagających przyimka kończą się w liczbie pojedynczej spółgłoską nosową -n. W toku dalszego rozwoju, w celu wyeliminowania zmienności podstawy morfologicznej zmieniają swoje zakończenie w tych formach z -(e)n na -(e)ň. W rezultacie na późniejszych etapach rozwoju języka zbiegają się one formalnie ze staroczeskim tematem -ja rzeczowników żeńskich zakończonych pierwotnie na -ně lub -ně/-eň, które również zmieniły formy w mianowniku/bierniku liczby pojedynczej na końcówkę -eň. Jednocześnie nieproduktywne już sufiksy -n, -ně (prasłowiańskie *-nьja) i częściowo także -sn, -zn (współczesne czeskie -seň, -zeň) łączą się w nowy sufiks -(e)ň.

Orthographic and orthoepic diversity of Serbo‑Slovak interlingual approximates The paper is a presentation of the results of a qualitative formal analysis of different types of Serbo-Slovak interlingual approximates (false friends, interlingual homonyms). In his earlier research on Serbo-Slovak approximation, the author of this paper defined the appropriate terminology and the meaning of the notions similar and identical in terms of quantitative analysis. The results of the study are based on lexical material containing 266 pairs of Serbo-Slovak approximates. They have been classified into four groups – interlingual homonyms, homophones, homographs and paronyms. We found that the differences between approximates are similar in their nature within the groups they were classified into. The existence of these types of differences is possible due to the presence of numerous spelling principles in the Slovak orthography – which features a combination of the phonetic, morphological, grammatical and etymological principles. In the Serbian language, the phonetic principle is the only one consistently present, and the morphological principle can be seen only in a few exceptions. Orthoepic differences are closely related to the orthographic ones. In addition, we can distinguish other kinds of differences which result from a different etymological development or are accidental. Comparing and understanding differences gives a comprehensive and clear view of the formal differentiation of Serbo-Slovak interlingual approximation. Ortograficzne i ortoepiczne zróżnicowanie słowacko‑serbskich aproksymatów międzyjęzykowych W niniejszym artykule zaprezentowane zostały wyniki analizy jakościowej pojedynczych rodzajów serbsko-słowackich aproksymatów międzyjęzykowych (wyrazów zdradliwych, homonimów międzyjęzykowych) pod względem ich formy. Autor w swoich wcześniejszych badaniach nad aproksymacją serbsko-słowacką zajął się zdefiniowaniem odpowiedniej terminologii i ustaleniem znaczenia pojęć podobny i identyczny za pomocą analizy ilościowej. Wyniki badań opierają się na materiale leksykalnym liczącym 266 par serbsko-słowackich aproksymatów. Zaklasyfikowano je do czterech grup – homonimy, homofony, homografy oraz paronimy międzyjęzykowe. Okazało się, że różnice między aproksymatami mają podobny charakter w zależności od tego, do której z grup aproksymaty zostały zaklasyfikowane. Pojawienie się tych różnic wynika z istnienia kilku zasad ortograficznych w pisowni języka słowackiego – połączenie zasady fonetycznej, morfologicznej, gramatycznej oraz etymologicznej, podczas gdy w języku serbskim obecna jest tylko zasada fonetyczna, morfologiczną można zauważyć w kilku wyjątkach. Różnice ortoepiczne są ściśle powiązane z ortograficznymi. Oprócz tego wskazać można takie różnice, które wynikają z odmiennego rozwoju etymologicznego lub są przypadkowe. Porównanie i poznanie różnic daje możliwość pełniejszego spojrzenia na formalne zróżnicowanie serbsko-słowackich aproksymatów międzyjęzykowych.

Usage and lexicographical practice (example of the verb dedykować ‘to dedicate’ in modern Polish) The purpose of this paper is to analyze the contemporary usage of the Polish verb dedykować (to dedicate) and its participle dedykowany (dedicated). Dur­ing last few years under the influence of English semantics and pragmatics this verb became one of the most popular words in the Polish marketing and IT jargon. The data provided by the National Corpus of Polish enables to state that the contemporary usage of the verb differs significantly from the semantic description published in the dictionaries of Polish. Therefore the scope of this paper is to promote the corpus driven approach to the lexicography. Since the new meaning of the analyzed verb is an English borrowing the paper deals also with the problem of adjusting English morphological patterns to the rules of Slavic verbal inflexion. As it can be observed in the text this gram­matical divergence leads in the case of new borrowings to the widely diversified and unstable language usage. Uzus a praktyka leksykograficzna (na przykładzie czasownika dedykować we współczesnej polszczyźnie) Celem artykułu jest analiza występujących we współczesnej polszczyźnie użyć czasownika dedykować. Szczególną uwagę językoznawców zwróciły w jego przypadku neologizmy semantyczne typu dedykowany, których nowe znaczenie, znamienne dla języka marketingu oraz profesjolektu informatycznego, zapożyczone zostało z języka angielskiego. Dane korpusowe umożliwiły stwierdzenie, że czasownik ten używany jest również w innych znaczeniach, nieoddanych dotychczas w odpowiedni sposób w słownikach współczesnego języka polskiego, zaś same neosemantyzmy cechuje niezwykle rozchwiany pod względem semantycznym oraz składniowym uzus.

Multi-Aspect Interpretation of the Phraseme in Nikolaĭ Alefirenko’s Monograph Teoretychni pytannia frazeolohiï: On the Occasion of His Jubilee This article is dedicated to the renowned Russian and Ukrainian linguist Nikolaĭ Alefirenko on the occasion of his 75th birthday. The paper consid­ers his approach to the study of the phraseme presented in his monograph Teoretychni pytannia frazeolohiï [Theoretical Issues of Phraseology] (1987), which includes a multi-dimensional and comprehensive description of this concept through the prism of his philosophy of language, and which is based on the material of the Ukrainian language from the early Soviet period of his scholarly activity. The article draws attention to the intertextual dimen­sion of Alefirenko’s monograph, noting his knowledge of tradition and heritage of classical linguistics on the one hand, and novel approaches in the modern study of language on the other, coupled with a careful selection of illustrative material from a large body of phraseological dictionaries as well as literary works and journalistic texts. The phraseme is approached as a multifaceted phenomenon, and it is captured using a system of definitions clarifying its features and types. It is analysed in the context of the philosophy of language – through the prism of semantics, syntactics and pragmatics. The author’s scientific thinking is characterised by the ability to see this issue in all linguistic dimensions. As interpreted by Afirenko, the phraseme is (1) “a symbol of the life of a language”, (2) a structural unit of the lan­guage system, (3) a component of the linguistic (phraseological) picture of the world (4) with peculiar epistemological roots, (5) an active component of the communication process, (6) reflecting the philosophy and logic of the language and (7) demonstrating a kind of connection with units of all its levels; (8) “a unit of the highest language level”; (9) “one of the means of human self-expression”. In Afirenko’s model, the phraseme is a complex unit which is unique in nature, and his understanding fully corresponds to the modern linguistic paradigm. Although his study was written 35 years ago, it is certainly still novel today. Wieloaspektowe rozumienie frazemu w monografii Nikołaja Alefirenki Теоретичні питання фразеології. Z okazji jubileuszu badacza Artykuł jest dedykowany wybitnemu rosyjskiemu i ukraińskiemu języko­znawcy Nikołajowi Alefirence z okazji jego 75. urodzin. Dotyczy rozważań nad pojęciem frazemu, przedstawionych przez badacza w monografii Теоретичні питання фразеології [Zagadnienia teoretyczne frazeologii] (1987). Praca ta zawiera kompleksową i wielostronną analizę frazemu w kontekście filozofii języka wyznawanej przez autora, opartą na materiale języka ukraińskiego z wczesnego radzieckiego okresu działalności naukowej lingwisty. W artykule zwrócono uwagę na intertekstualne ujęcie zagadnienia. Odnotowano erudycyjność autora zarówno w kontekście tradycji, spuścizny językoznawstwa klasycznego, jak też nowatorskich poglądów we współczesnej lingwistyce, podpartych analizą dużej liczby słowników frazeologicznych, utworów literatury pięknej i publicystyki. Frazem jest traktowany jako zjawisko wieloaspektowe, definiowane za pomocą systemu określeń doprecyzowujących jego cechy i typy. Analizowany jest przez pryzmat semantyki, syntaktyki i pragmatyki. Rozumienie frazemu cechuje językoznawcza wieloaspektowość. Alefirenko uznaje go za (1) „symbol życia języka”, (2) strukturalną jednostkę systemu języka, (3) komponent językowego (frazeologicznego) obrazu świata, (4) element mający swoiste korzenie episte­mologiczne, (5) aktywny składnik procesu komunikacyjnego, (6) komponent odzwierciedlający filozofię i logikę języka, (7) element związany z innymi jednostkami języka, na wszystkich jego poziomach, (8) „jednostkę najwyższego poziomu języka”, (9) „jeden ze sposobów wyrażania siebie przez człowieka”. Jest jednostką kompleksową i niepowtarzalną, której rozumienie odpowiada współczesnemu lingwistycznemu paradygmatowi naukowemu. Monografia powstała 35 lat temu, ale do dziś niewątpliwie pozostaje pracą nowatorską.

The Ukrainian Vocative: Changing Views on the Functions of the Morphological Form іn the Context of Social Transformations This article highlights changes in the linguistic interpretation and practice of using the vocative case in Ukrainian which took place during the centuries. The study demonstrates the relation between the linguistic evaluation of this morphological form and political situation, and the status of the Ukrainian language. During theSoviet Unionperiod, linguists pointed out that the address function is peculiar to two morphological forms of a noun, i.e. the vocative and the nominative. Stylists recommended using the nominative in the official and business spheres; they considered the vocative more suitable for everyday speech. Modern Ukrainian language experts consider the vocative to be the only nor­mative form of appeal. They suppose that using the nominative in the address form is a deviation from the norm caused by the influence of the Russian language, which prevailed in theSoviet Union. As a result of the traumatic experience of Soviet totalitarianism, issues of the literary standard of Ukrainian and its purity are acute. Thus, the linguistic evaluation, recommendations on the usage of the vocative in modern papers of Ukrainian linguists are often emotional and appeal to the speaker’s commitments. The nominative often performs the address function in the spoken language of the Ukrainians; the vocative may have a full and reduced form of both kinds. Print media orient themselves towards the literary standard and usage of the vocative. The belles lettres reflect the competition of morphological forms of the noun for the appeal expression, which is peculiar to uncontrolled speech. Ukraiński wołacz: zmiana funkcji formy morfologicznej na tle przemian społecznych Artykuł przedstawia analizę zmian w interpretacji lingwistycznej i prak­tyce używania wołacza, które nastąpiły w trakcie XX i XXI stulecia. Wykazano związek między oceną lingwistyczną tej formy morfologicznej a sytuacją polityczną, statusem języka ukraińskiego. W okresie radzieckim języko­znawcy zwracali uwagę, że funkcja odwołania występuje w dwóch formach morfologicznych rzeczownika – w wołaczu i w mianowniku. Styliści zalecali używanie mianownika w stylu urzędowym, wołacz uznano za formę właściwą przede wszystkim dla języka mówionego. Współcześni językoznawcy ukra­ińscy uważają wołacz za jedyną formę normatywną odwołania, a mianownik w tej roli interpretowany jest jako odchylenie od normy spowodowane wpły­wem dominującego w Związku Radzieckim języka rosyjskiego. W wyniku traumatycznych doświadczeń radzieckiego totalitaryzmu kwestie standardu literackiego i czystości języka ukraińskiego są postrzegane jako bardzo draż­liwe. Dlatego ocena lingwistyczna, zalecenia dotyczące użycia wołacza we współczesnych pracach ukraińskich językoznawców mają często charakter emocjonalny i odwołują się do przekonań mówiąсego. W mowie Ukraińców funkcję odwołania pełni często mianownik, a wołacz może mieć zarówno pełne, jak i skrócone formy dwojakiego rodzaju. W przypadku wydań drukowanych typowe jest koncentrowanie się na standardzie literackim, a zatem stosowanie wołacza. Konkurencja form morfologicznych rzeczownika w wyrażaniu apela­tywnym, charakterystyczna dla swobodnej mowy, znajduje odzwierciedlenie w literaturze pięknej.

The Names for a Locksmith in German, Polish and East Slavic Languages This article analyses the names for a locksmith in German, Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian. The paper outlines previous explorations in this respect and identifies their shortcomings. The author presents the distribution of the forms under study in different groups of German dialects between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries and traces their origins. He also discusses their orthographic, phonetic and morphological assimilation in the Slavic languages. The analysis of historical and linguistic sources has made it possible to identify selected phonetic and morphological processes which occurred in German and are visible in Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Nazwy ślusarza w języku niemieckim, polskim i językach wschodniosłowiańskich Niniejszy artykuł jest poświęcony analizie nazwy ślusarz w językach: niemieckim, polskim, ukraińskim i białoruskim. Opracowanie przedstawia dotychczasowe badania w tym zakresie i wskazuje ich niedociągnięcia. Autor opisuje dystrybucję badanych form w różnych grupach dialektów języka niemieckiego od XIII do XVI wieku oraz ustala ich pochodzenie. Następnie omawia ich ortograficzną, fonetyczną i morfologiczną asymilację w językach słowiańskich. Analiza źródeł historycznojęzykowych pozwoliła zidentyfikować wybrane procesy fonetyczne i morfologiczne, które zaszły w języku niemieckim i są widoczne w językach: polskim, ukraińskim i białoruskim.

Common Usage vs Codified Standard: Problems with the Codification of Anglicisms in the Contemporary Russian Language This article focuses on the important problem of codification of the most recent borrowings of British and American English origins in the contemporary Russian language. Standardization of loanwords is a current issue of vital importance, as it has a global reach, which means that it affects not only the Russian language but many other national languages that are under the influence of the English language – the contemporary lingua franca. The codification of the lexis of foreign origin is examined based on material obtained from contemporary lifestyle maga­zines published in Russian. This type of press disseminates borrowed neologisms particularly intensively and, at the same time, creates the language use of the given discourse. The excerpted vocabulary items have been confronted with the lexis of the most recent Russian spelling dictionaries. The deliberations contained in this paper show a fragment of linguistic reality changing under the influence of ubiq­uitous English language, where common usage competes with the linguistic norm. The article shows the difficulties caused by lexical transfer of loanwords faced by specialists in prescriptive linguistics (e.g. a common problem of orthographic variation). Norma uzualna vs norma skodyfikowana. O problemach kodyfikacji anglicyzmów we współczesnym języku rosyjskim Niniejszy artykuł zwraca uwagę na istotny problem kodyfikacji najnowszych zapożyczeń anglo-amerykańskiej proweniencji we współczesnej ruszczyźnie. Temat standaryzacji zapożyczeń jest aktualny i niezwykle ważny, bowiem ma on zasięg globalny, zatem dotyczy nie tylko języka rosyjskiego, lecz wielu innych języków narodowych, które znajdują się pod wpływem angielszczyzny – współ­czesnej lingua franca. Badanie kodyfikacji leksyki obcego pochodzenia oparto na materiale zaczerpniętym z najnowszych rosyjskojęzycznych czasopism kolorowych typu life style. Ten rodzaj prasy szczególnie ochoczo rozpowszechnia zapoży­czone neologizmy, jednocześnie kreuje uzus danego dyskursu. Wyekscerpowany materiał porównano z leksyką zawartą w najnowszych słownikach ortograficznych języka rosyjskiego. Niniejsze rozważania dają obraz fragmentu rzeczywistości językowej zmieniającej się pod wpływem wszechobecnej angielszczyzny, w której uzus konkuruje z normą językową. Ponadto wskazano tu szereg problemów wywoływanych zapożyczeniami leksykalnymi, z którymi zmagają się specjaliści z obszaru językoznawstwa normatywnego (np. powszechny problem wariantywności ortograficznej zapożyczeń).

This paper presents the results from two different experiments carried out independently with two different groups of students using the same materials and the same methodology, with the aim to check whether oral translation, if applied as a main teaching technique, can foster the development of the accuracy component of language proficiency. The experiments were carried out at the International Centre for Plurilingualism at the University of Udine with two experimental groups over a period of three years. Apart from providing a positive answer to the research question, the results show that the whole training can be carried out as part of the in-class activities and is independent of factors of personal character like the amount of time a student dedicates to the L2 learning at home, his or her willingness to put him/herself to work and even, to a large extent, independent of the student’s mother tongue or previous contacts with the foreign language. Since the main goal is the rapid memorization of the lexical and grammar material inside a context, the present technique suggests itself as a promising teaching tool in any lexically specialized field of L2 study.

The term contrastive grammar is still ambiguous. In this paper we trace the unjustified synonymy of terms (confrontative grammar, comparative grammar, contrastive grammar) which lead to controversy among linguists and we attempt to introduce appropriate clarifications to explain the phenomenon. We can state that this linguistic direction is quite new, and its metalanguage is still in the process of development and formation. When studying contrastive grammar in the modern scientific functional-communicative paradigm, the focus of attention is directed to the issues of pragmalinguistics, that is the research, in addition to the actual meanings, of the semantics of linguistic units for designating objects of the environment, also the speech-thinking activity of speakers who use these units and listeners who interpret them; the possible situations of their application; the study of “language in context”; language research, taking into account the goal that is planned to be achieved in the communication process; the wide multidimensionality of the interpretation of the statement; the study of interactive means, taking into account grammatical meanings. The main category of pragmalinguistics is the category of evaluation, and therefore, the issue of contrastive grammar and contrastive description of languages is important to consider in the focus of the paradigm of the category of evaluation; in particular, this concerns the manifestation of each grammatical category.

The author of this paper defines the aspectual paradigms of Russian verbs as such grammatical structures whose formal aspect is correlated with the conceptual one, therefore being its cognitive counterpart. With a view to analysing these paradigms he uses the theory of markedness as an analytic tool. According to it, the grammatical changes that occur in natural languages originate from general principles of naturalness which are typologically relevant. They result in morphological shifts that are linked to the verbalisation of Russian aspectual paradigms and allow to predict the direction of their development. In particular, the principle of natural grammatical development should be considered crucial. It means that the grammatical changes in natural languages cause elimination of marked elements, so that these more complex linguistic structues are replaced with less complex ones. Such a principle manifests an unconscious desire of language users to minimise their linguistic efforts, as it would place an additional burden on interpersonal communication.

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the phenomenon of travel to the places in Venice associated with the Russian poet Iosif Brodsky and the way in which the Fondamenta degli Icurabili, a place of imagination that is the title of the Russian and Italian-language translation of the essay Watermark, functions in space and consciousness of travellers. The article focuses primarily on individual literary journeys that were reflected in or even inspired the traveller’s writing activities. The experiences of being in the Fondamenta degli Incurabili and trying to understand the meaning of the toponym were described by many authors of contemporary non-fiction texts about Venice: Yuri Lepski, Yelena Yakovich, Gleb Smirnov, Arkady Ippolitov, Ekaterina Margolis. Two texts are particularly noteworthy, i.e. the reportage by Yuri Lepski Brodskiy tol’ko chto ushël (2020), which is entirely devoted to the experiences related to the journey in the footsteps of the poet and Progulki s Brodskim i tak daleye. Iosif Brodskiy v fil’me Alekseya Shishova i Yeleny Yakovich (2016) by Yelena Yakovich, where Brodsky himself interprets the title of his essay. Methodological tools deriving from the field of geopoetics and cultural geography, such as the place of imagination or reading journeys, proved helpful during the development of the paper.

The paper aims at investigating the demonstration of Russian intuition in the contemporary Russian speculative fiction. The research thesis is that the Russians, both presented in literature and within the frames of the national character studies, manifest themselves as the intuitive introvert type according to Carl Gustav Jung’s classification. For validating the thesis, as far as the proposed literary works are concerned, one should use the instruments offered by cultural literary criticism along with the support of non-literary disciplines, such as intercultural communication and ethnopsychology. Moreover, one should consider also notes on Russian national character taken by Jung himself as well as studies on the sociocultural aspect of the analysed works. A wide range of methods and perspectives allows deep research of the “feeling – intuitive” Jungian scale as manifested within literary characters representing the Russian element (also called Russianness) in the selected works, which belong to the most significant and/or popular pieces of contemporary speculative fiction in Russia.

The subject to be presented and described in the present paper are word combinations with mythological (Graeco-Roman) origins occurring in eight crime novels penned by Marek Krajewski, taking the shape of: (i) better or less known phrasemes, or conventional petrified multiword units reproduced in a communicative act to express particular intentions and intensions; (ii) phrasematic innovations, or phrasemes modified formally and/or semantically and used against the grain of the phraseological norm; or (iii) literary nonce phrasemes, that is multiword units created ad hoc for the purposes of style and world depiction, containing eponyms and eponymisms of mythological origin which exist in Polish. The proposed examination of conventional (the titular convention), innovative, and nonce (the titular invention) units used in the excerpted crime novels is of a qualitative and functional nature, since its focus is on an attempt to point out and discuss the functions which the selected examples serve in the literary messaging. Polyword mythology-based expressions fulfil numerous and various (often at the same time) functions in M. Krajewski’s crime novels, incl. cultural-identitarian, content-focused, expressive, evaluative, aesthetic and others.

This paper is devoted to the lexeme tchawica from a diachronic perspective. The first part is the description of a trachea (its functions and structure) as an anatomical organ, which is followed by the analysis of its etymology. The main focus of investigation is the description of tchawica in the history of the Polish language and dialects. For this purpose, synonyms, derivatives, variant forms (in terms of phonetics and morphology), names based on foreign words (derived from Latin and Greek), as well as hybrid names, have been pointed out. According to the analysis, these names are differentiated both in terms of motivation and form.

This paper is devoted to studying productive word formation processes in Russian slang (creating new words morphologically and semantic derivation). The paper focuses on terms which are used to name people and which were taken from S.I. Levikova’s The Great Dictionary of Youth Slang. The lexical units that are analyzed are not stylistically neutral, and their expressiveness can be achieved through suffixation, compounding, contamination, clipping or via metaphors and metonymies.

This paper addresses the lexicographic work of V.I. Prakhov, who was a Moscow University graduate and a successful teacher in the 1830s and 1840s in the cities of Mogilev and Mstislavl. During this period, he compiled his (unfinished) Materials for an Explanatory Russian Dictionary, i.e. four books that contained “regional, colloquial, and archaic words which were mostly found in Old Russian and Western Russian memorabilia”. While describing the areas of V. Prakhov’s dictionary research, the paper focuses on the regional lexis that was captured in his manuscripts, i.e. the colloquial words and phrasemes of the Vologda Region.

This paper focuses on describing possible directions of research on so-called superior expressions in the field of cognitive semantics. It presents an analysis of the concept of fire, which is examined in the theosophical texts of “Living Ethics”. The aim of the paper is to prove that the lexicographical understanding of ‘fire’ (in certain Russian dictionaries) is not the same as the philosophical understanding of this concept (“Living Ethics”) since as far as the latter is concerned, the concept of fire rather refers to the domain of thought and the noosphere (in terms of Neo-Platonism) rather than to a physical phenomenon. This fact is confirmed by analyzing lexical-thematic categories that are specific to selected models of collocation, in which one of the parts contains the stem огон- (огн-).

The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of Russian folk literature in the form of a fairytale and to show potential difficulties in translation. Folk literature cannot be seen only as a certain form of ordinary people’s artistic voice since it has been developing in parallel with the mainstream literature in Russia. Russian folk fairytale has a specific structure and form which does not exist in any other culture. Like in many other languages and cultures, there are certain names, descriptive adjectives and other forms that are very challenging for translators. In this paper many examples are provided to support this hypothesis. It is almost impossible to translate certain Russian fairytales without “over-“ or “under-interpreting” the content, and the subject matter itself needs to be thoroughly elaborated.