Rola badań ankietowych w rekonstrukcji językowo-kulturowego obrazu szacunku we współczesnej polszczyźnie
The role of questionnaires in the reconstruction of the linguacultural view of respect (szacunek) in contemporary Polish

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study is to present the role of empirical research in the reconstruction of the linguacultural image of axiologically loaded concepts and socially determined connotations. The article relates to methodological assumptions and findings of ethnolinguistics, where the reconstruction of the conceptualisation of particular notions is based on the interpretation of three types of data: (i) the language system, (ii) questionnaires, and (iii) texts. This is the approach adopted in the report Język – wartości – polityka [Language – values – politics] (JWP 2006), and then in the Axiological Lexicon of Slavs and Their Neighbours (LASiS 1-5, 2015-2019), compiled by the team supervised by Jerzy Bartmiński.This study presents the results of a questionnaire regarding respect (Polish szacunek), conducted among one hundred students from five universities in Lublin. Respondents were asked to answer the question: “What, in your opinion, is the essence of respect?”. The data obtained from first-hand sources enable a reconstruction of the students’ image of true respect in the Polish language in an aspectual view.The social aspect was found in an exposed position, where the most frequently indicated factors are: (1) acceptance of and empathy towards others; (2) courteous manners, appropriate behaviour towards others and appropriate attitude towards animals, plants, and objects; (3) recognition of the other person as an authority figure, with admiration for someone or something. Next, psychological, ethical, and psycho-social aspects were recognized. Existential and cultural aspects were found to be the least represented. The findings indicate a compatibility of the data from questionnaires with dictionary data, which together confirm the primacy of the subjective aspect of respect. It is shown that questionnaires are a significant stage of discovering how speakers understand the meanings of the concepts they use – this concerns the colloquial, common understanding, which is crucial in constructing a cognitive definition of a given concept. Empirical research also enables a hierarchization of isolated defining features, ranking them from the most entrenched ones to the least frequently indicated ones, which renders this research a valuable tool in the verification of lexicographic data.

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