The present contribution focuses on one specifi c fi gurative usage of proper nouns, namely paragon names, currently employed as derogatory or scornful terms in the debate about public affairs in Poland, as exemplifi ed by the sentence Dlatego Kaczyńscy-PL i Trumpy-PL wygrywają wybory1 [That is why Kaczyńskis and Trumps win elections]. The article argues that metonymic approaches advocated by cognitive linguists (Lakoff 1987, Kövecses and Radden 1998, Barcelona 2003, 2004, Brdar and Brdar-Szabó 2007, and Bierwiaczonek (2013, in press) proffer a more felicitous and precise explanation of the motivational processes behind paragonic uses of names than the metaphoric model advanced in Polish onomastic research, represented, among others, by Kosyl (1978), Kaleta (1998), Cieślikowa (2006) and Rutkowski (2007a, 2007b, 2008, 2012, 2017). We provide a detailed discussion of the recent cognitive linguistic literature on paragons, followed by an analysis of two Polish examples of paragonic uses, which serve as illustration of the explanatory power of selected metonymic frameworks presented in the paper.

Rule of Law, Legality and Depoliticization were key concepts in the negotiations at the Round Table, in the subsequent dissolution of the security apparatus and in the police reform of 1989/90. Based on published protocols and archival sources, the article explores the use of these concepts in rapidly changing contexts. It argues that the regime and the opposition attached different, even outright op-posite meanings to these concepts, and used them accordingly. As it turned out, it was precisely these semantic cleavages which made an agreement possible in the first place. Key aspects of the regime change in 1989 were being shaped pragmatically, rather than on ideological grounds.

Successful slogans in Italian political discourse – This paper aims to describe the notion of ‘sloganisation’, with special regard to the fortune and circulation of certain slogans in Italian public discourse. An analysis of their forms, contexts of occurrence (political propaganda, advertising, football supporters) and means of diffusion (street talk, electoral manifestos, traditional and new media) shows an increasing desemantisation of this kind of message. Slogans are routinely used by political parties and are widely quoted, regardless of their ideological content, merely in order to create identification or to increase the polemical attitude of their leader.

This article focuses on the problem of rituality in contemporary political discourse. It describes the specificity of manifestations of rituality in political discourse on the example of the Russian variant. The material for research is served by the official public texts of utterances made by V.V. Zhirinovsky published in the party newspapers of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia in year 2021. The study was carried out using discourse analysis. In the theoretical part definitions of ambiguous terms are given, which undoubtedly include discourse, political discourse, and ritual. Their accepted definitions and concepts are indicated. Observations are made on the linguistic forms of ritual expression in politics, which are mainly associated with the performance of a specific political function. It has been proven that rituality in political discourse is opposed to informativeness and manifested in the fulfilment of the assigned specific political role and tasks in society.