Streszczenie:
The paper touches upon the subject of collocability of the lexeme “czerwony” (red) in Polish
and English. The authors have conducted the analysis which shows that the lexeme
“czerwony” (red) exhibits high collocability in both languages, as it forms approximately 80
collocations. Some of them refer to the prototypes of red, namely blood (2 in Polish, 4 in
English) and fire (9 in Polish, 2 in English). However, it should be noted that they are not
richly represented in the analyzed languages. “Czerwony” (red) shows greater collocability
with the names of plants and body parts. Based on the expressions and collocations
presented in the paper, it can be concluded that both in Polish and English, negative
connotations dominate when it comes to red. Users of both languages associate red with
negative emotions such as anger, irritation, and annoyance, as well as danger and threat.
However, dictionaries also provide examples of phrases that refer to positive associations
with red. There are many analogies between these two languages regarding the issue discussed
in the present paper, which clearly shows that Polish and English belong to the same cultural
sphere, with differences mainly related to the quantitative representation of certain
collocations and their formal-structural properties.
