Stereotypy etniczne w różnych językach – narodowe? Międzynarodowe? Uniwersalne?
Ethnic stereotypes in different languages: national? international? universal?

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses ethnic stereotypes petrified in different languages and referring to other nations. According to some researchers, in the lexis and phraseology of a given language, certain units can be distinguished which are only limited to this language. The article collects several examples from which it comes to light that when wider material is considered (including the history of a language, dialects and jargons), some lexemes and phrasemes are found to be present not in one, but in many languages. Analysis of numerous ethnic stereotypes in different languages reveals that transnational semantic patterns exist which are realized independently of linguistic affinity, e.g. in Indo-European as well as in Finno-Ugric languages. These patterns (models) contain slots for specific ethnonyms; how they are filled depends on extra-linguistic factors: historical experience, geographical neighbourhood, mutual friendly or hostile relations. The existence of petrified references to other nations in each language appears to be a universal feature. Specific realization of general semantic models is only partially studied.

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