The linguistic image of the family in the statements of students from Łódź — in the light of survey research conducted on a group of Polish and Ukrainian youth

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the linguistic image of the family in the state‑ ments of Polish and Ukrainian students studying at the Faculty of Philology of the University of Lodz. The theoretical basis for the research was the assumptions developed by ethnolinguists regarding the linguistic image of the world. Due to the fact that the definitions created by the students are of the nature of natural texts, the semantic rules of the cognitive definition were used as a description tool in the reconstruction of the structure of the discussed lexeme. The holistic cognitive definition is built on the basis of three types of data: system (lexicographic), survey and text. This publication focuses on survey research. Quantitative analysis showed the axiological choices of students: in the questionnaires of Polish youth, family was ranked third (10.93%) out of 36 concepts on the list, and Ukrainian — in second place (15.37%). When it comes to the conceptualization of the concept, respondents drew attention to the essence of the bond between individual family members, common space, sense of security, as well as the relationships between household members. For Poles, the most important thing is to understand family as close people, but also as a relationship of kinship, bond and support (20% each). In turn, for Ukrainians, the analyzed value is primarily close people (50%). Ukrainian youth are the least likely to identify the described concepts with home, relationships and bonds (0%). In turn, Poland did not characterize the family as the most valuable value (0%).