The present monograph is representative of the trend of linguistic research concerning the
semantics of the names of values. An attempt is made to reconstruct the linguistic picture of
work in two related Slavic languages – Russian and Polish. The main purpose of the monograph
was to penetrate into the sphere of concepts by way of a semantic analysis of lexemes and
phraseologisms. The aim of the analysis was to present in what ways work is perceived and
interpreted by Polish and Russian native speakers of both general language and a youth slang.
The study of the material was conducted in many ways: not only on the basis of the opposition
between the Russian and the Polish language but also on the basis of the opposition between the
general language and slang.
The choice of the object of research was determined by the fact that work plays a special role
in the language awareness of every human being, no matter what language s/he uses. Work is
considered a key and universal concept of culture, and the attitude to it enables us to formulate
evaluative statements about various outlooks on life.
The monograph has an interdisciplinary nature. Its theoretical and methodological premises
refer to disciplines which have flourished in recent years: ethnolinguistics, cultural linguistics,
cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics.
The source of the research material was constituted by lexicographical works: explanatory
dictionaries, idiom dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms, dictionaries of
colloquial speech and youth slang (66 bibliographical items). The material was excerpted from
dictionaries representing various conceptual perspectives in order to render the results of the
analysis of this material as much reliable as possible.
The present work contributes to the development of anthropocentric scholarly disciplines.
Research findings can be applied in academic practice, in creating teaching materials for learners
of Polish and Russian (both native speakers and for foreign language learners), compiling
monolingual and bilingual dictionaries and in translation
