Esperanto is a planned international auxiliary language, constructed by L.L. Zamenhof and published in 1887. Although created to facilitate international communication, it has become a tool of self-identification. This paper aims to describe language attitudes formed in the Esperanto speech community and to demonstrate that these attitudes shape the community.

Wilkans for all their invaluable comments. All errors are my own Q: How many Lojbanists does it take to change a broken light bulb? A: Two: one to decide what to change it into and one to figure out what kind of bulb emits broken light.

This work is the result of an ethnolinguistic research in the animal lexical area. The analysis is based on the notion of the linguistic picture of the world (LPW). One of the underlying elements of LPW is division of the world into taboo (the sacred) and noa (the profane). This division is reflected in various idiomatical expressions, which serve as the basis of this work. The aim of this study was to outline the system of values connected to animal symbolism. The author has analysed Chinese word combinations containing 6 zodiac animals. These animals seem to be an important part of Chinese culture with a high symbolic load. The Zodiac in the beliefs of the Chinese carries a positive meaning. However, the analysis of the idioms containing the names of the zodiac animals provides completely different conclusions. On the basis of the lexical material, it can be concluded that various types of symbolism are attributed to the zodiac animals in the Chinese language, not always resulting from their place in mythology. WstępCzłowiek jest osadzony w konkretnej kulturze a poprzez socjalizację kreuje swoją tożsamość i mentalność, które sprawiają, że patrzy na świat w zgodzie z regułami i zachowaniami obowiązującymi w danym społeczeństwie. Poprzez wychowanie uczony on jest skali wartości, która pozostaje zakodowana w podświadomości. Te reguły życia odzwierciedlone są w języku w postaci utartych połączeń wyrazowych, które szeroko można nazwać frazeologizmami.

The fourth international Interlinguistic Symposium organised by the Interlinguistic Studies Programme (Institute of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland) was held September 21-22, 2017 in Poznań. The main subject was: The role of international languages from the time of Zamenhof to the modern multicultural world.

The gap between individual linguistic repertoires and generally acknowledged societal ones is one of the principal factors that hamper social and linguistic inclusion. The development of a clear metalinguistic awareness – in school as well as in society as a whole – is a sound tool for achieving inclusion, in particular of mobile people into host societies. Building on the data collected for the MIME project, the chapter analyses the correlation between various profiles of mobility and sociolinguistic conditions in the host society to identify points of linguistic friction. The notion of ‘linguistic unease’ (a technical term to depict discomfort in sociolinguistic relations) is pivotal to understanding and tackling the complex linguistic diversity in school as well as in society. Teacher training focused on recognition and careful reduction of this discomfort, through clear understanding of the social and linguistic dynamics in school, can then be a strategy to alleviate friction and therefore foster inclusion of people whose linguistic repertoire is different from that of the majority, in particular mobile people. At the same time, this strategy is beneficial to all parties involved, as it also implies active endorsement by the host society of new kinds of multilingualism brought in by mobile people, enhancing the community’s growth potential.