Stereotyp Polaka i jego profilowanie w białoruskim kręgu językowo-kulturowym
THE STEREOTYPE OF A POLE AND ITS PROFILES IN BELORUSSIAN LINGUISTIC-CULTURAL SPHERE

Summary/Abstract: Making use of the conception of cognitive definition, the author reconstructs the Belorussian linguistic stereotype of a Pole. An analysis of linguistic data (systemic, textual and questionnaire-based) allows one to establish the set of base features of the stereotype and reconstruct various profiles of the image of a Pole present in the Belorussian public discourse and everyday thinking. Of historical nature is seeing of a Pole as someone from the same ethnic stock; here also belongs the image of a Pole as 'Mazur' (viewed as 'one of us but different') as well as that of a 'political Pole', 'our Pole' - in accordance with the 16th-century formula 'gente Ruthenus, nationae Polonus'. The contemporary profiles of the image of a Pole include: a Pole as a master; the profile has negative connotations, is socially determined and serves to ridicule (especially in folklore); a Pole as an imperialist; an ideological profile, viewed from the perspective of a Belorussian patriot (Poles are blamed for the difficulties of Belorussians with establishing their own identity, caused by the Polonization of Belorussian gentry); a Pole as a Slav; constructed from the perspective of the ideology of proletariat, within the domain of the language of Soviet propaganda; the least conspicuous profile, constructed from the point of view of a Belorussian intelligent, is that of a Pole as an ally, an object of jealousy because of his national consciousness and as someone from whom one can expect support in the process of the awakening of the russified Belorussian society.

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