«Карьера» и «карьеризм» в истории русского и польского языков
Kariera ‘career’: The history of the Russian and Polish words and concepts

Summary/Abstract: The paper is an attempt to trace the semantic evolution of the words карьера ‘career’ and карьеризм ‘careerism’ in Russian and their Polish counterparts, as well as elicit linguistic means of conceptualizing the corresponding phenomena, by analyzing systemic data, the discourse and linguistic reflection of the speakers.The source of the word карьера both in Russian and in Polish is considered to be the French carrière, initially ‘space for the passage of carts, horses etc.’. The history of the borrowed word in both Slavic languages represents the ‘road’ metaphor, rooted in the source language (Russian карьерный путь, Polish droga kariery, szlak kariery and the like). The existence of different (opposite) understandings of the content of карьера as ‘service’, brings about the necessity of differentiating карьера from карьеризм, which as a rule is evaluated negatively. On the whole, connotations of these axiologically marked words reveal their dependence on the ideology dominant in the society.

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