Mediating the Otherworld in Polish Folklore

Ewa Masłowska is Professor of Linguistics in the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where she specialises in cultural and cognitive linguistics. Her main research interests include the linguistic worldview, especially spiritual culture, axiology, symbolism and linguistic memory. She studies Polish and Slavic folklore from both linguistic (dialect lexis, phraseology, paremiology) and extra-linguistic perspectives (folk texts, ethnological data).

• Cognitive analysis – Preconceptual image schemas – Linguistic stereotypes – Symbolic meaning – Mediators between physical and metaphysical worlds – Four natural elements – Water – Earth – Air – Fire – Celestial lights – The sun and moon – The otherworld – Myth – Ritual – Symbol – Lexis – Phraseology – Polish folk culture – Conceptual schemas – Intercultural studies