Abstract:
The article attempts to outline some characteristics of the selected Ukrainian-Russian-Polish-English
anthropocentric phraseological units. The author strives to show a significant role of anthropocentric
phraseological units in the representation of a cultural mentality, as well as in reflecting the national
and cultural identity. The investigated examples are grouped into several paradigms, each reflecting
a special human trait. It is the first attempt to draw parallels as well contrasts between phraseologies
in a given semantic paradigm both in related Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and non-related English
languages. The attempt has been done to learn and understand the national spirit of certain ethnic
group through anthropocentric phraseological units. This is one of the first attempts when these four
languages – Polish, English, Russian and Ukrainian, have been compared in the certain paradigms of
anthropocentric phraseologies reflecting the national and cultural identity in order to capture the
spirit of the target language. It is essential for effective cross-cultural communication because the national and cultural factors of a single speech environment significantly affect not only the elements
of the communicative code, but they are also important in the communication process with all its
components, i.e. principles, maxims, rules of communication, communication strategies and tactics.
