909 On the Presentation of Onomastic Idioms in Bilingual English-Polish Dictionaries of Idioms Joanna Szerszunowicz Białystok University The paper discusses the lexicographic description of onomastic idioms in contemporary English-Polish dictionaries of idioms, with a special focus on the cultural character of the onymic component. Onymic idioms are distinguished as a group of particular interest for lexicographers, since onyms tend to be culture-bound elements of international, national or local character. Thirteen English-Polish dictionaries of idioms have been analyzed so that the presentation of onymic idiomatic expressions in such lexicographic works could be discussed. The macro- and micro-structures of such dictionaries are analyzed in order to identify the problem areas in the bilingual description of onomastic idioms. From the cultural-linguistic point of view, two methods of presenting onomastic idioms are observed in the dictionaries, i.e. the inclusion of cultural information regarding the onym or the exclusion of such information. In the case of the inclusion of cultural information, the lack of consistency is common in one dictionary, i.e. some of the onyms are commented on, while others are not described at all. Since onyms tend to be culturally-specific components of idioms, cultural information is essential to ensure a proper understanding of the idiom. The problem of insufficient lexicographic description of such fossilized phrases is presented in order to draw attention to the need for the creation of an onomastic idiom dictionary, enabling both users and advanced learners (of English) to have an insight both into the language and the culture. Bearing in mind that idioms undergo various modifications when used in particular contexts, such an approach to describing onomastic units of idiomatic character renders it possible for the user to acquire a proper command of idioms containing onomastic components. 1. Introduction Idioms of a given language reflect the culture, illustrating the correlation between language and culture (Teliya et al. 2001: 55). The relations between language and culture are complex, since the language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality (Kramsch 2000: 3), thus, they can be analyzed from various points of view. For instance, it is possible to distinguish certain groups of components, which tend to be culture-bound elements in the majority of languages, both European and non-European, e.g. the names of material realia, faunal and floral terms particular to the area occupied by a given ethnic community (Fernando 1996: 93), and proper names (Laskowski 2003: 145). The last group mentioned above contains various kinds of nomina propria (cf. McArthur 1996: 652), such as anthroponyms, toponyms, chrematonyms, ideonyms and zoonyms. It is worth emphasizing that onyms are culture-bound components which function at a universal, national or local level. Furthermore, proper names tend to be the key components of phraseological units. Therefore, in case of numerous phraseologisms the connotations of a given onym are of great importance for decoding such idioms, since onomastic components are names appearing in the collective memory of a given nation. It should be stressed that many onyms constituting the mental map of a language user function as evaluation markers. Therefore, a question arises whether idiom dictionaries available contain sufficient information regarding onomastic idioms, i.e. entries provide the dictionary users, who are advanced learners of English, with linguistic-cultural information enabling the person to use and understand the idiom in a proper way in a variety of contexts (cf. Rodger 2006). In order to discuss the issue popular English-Polish dictionaries of idioms, both English and American phrases, have been analyzed.