The cultural component in bilingual dictionaries of phraseological units Joanna Szerszunowicz University of Bialystok, Poland joannaszersz@gmail.com 1. Introduction: cultural aspects of phraseology The relation between language and culture is of complex character and great importance, since, as Kramsch states (2000: 3-4), language expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality. Phraseology is one of the areas in which the language-culture relation is manifested to a great extent. However, it should be admitted that in the early stages of research on phraseology cultural aspects were not given so much attention, with much more emphasis on other problems: idiom syntax, semantics and pragmatics as well as text- -related modifications observed in idiom structure (Piirainen 2008: 207; cf. Pawley 2007). The close link between culture and phraseology, best revealed in idioms and proverbs, is one of the problems researched widely over recent years (Teliya et al. 2001; Sabban 2007; Szerszunowicz 2011). Thanks to the development of cognitive linguistics and conceptual analysis a reliable foundation for such research is provided (Teliya et al. 2001: 55). In the majority of current studies on phraseology culture is treated as “a fundamentally acknowledged constant” (Piirainen 2008: 207). According to Teliya et al. (2001: 55), “a further important reason why cultural information should be included in an account of linguistic meanings concern the needs of lexicography today. For the practical purposes of compiling a dictionary of lexical connotations, a number of theoretical points must be elucidated concerning the general problem of cultural markedness”. Therefore, the cultural issues are important in terms of phraseographic description, especially bilingual (cf. Tomaszczyk 1984). The user of the dictionary needs to be provided with the comprehensive information on a given unit, including that of cultural character. As to the definition of the term culture, Piirainen states (2008: 209) that “most studies concerned with culture or terms derived from it make no attempt to define the terms”, drawing attention to the fact that “the notion of culture fluctuates between a wide and a narrow concept”. Broadly speaking, culture is “the ability of members of a speech community to orientate themselves with respect to social, moral, political, and so on values in their empirical and mental experience” (Teliya et al. 2001: 57). There are five channels through which culture penetrates language: cultural semes, cultural concepts, cultural connotations, cultural background and discourse stereotypes (Teliya et al. 2001: 58-64). Cultural semes are parts of the lexical meaning formed by the cultural component. Cultural concepts can be defined as abstract notions mapping and constructing the picture of the world in a way specific to a given culture, i.e. concepts proper and subconcepts. Cultural connotations result from the associative relation between the inner form of a language sign and symbols of any other non-verbal code, such as stereotypes, prototypes, myths, etc. Cultural background concerns a unit associated with an event in the history of a given speech community, whereas discourse stereotypes are units which originate from texts, either attributable to a given author or an anonymous text or works. Aiming at classifying the cultural aspects in question, Piirainen (2008: 210ff) lists the following: textual dependence, pre-scientific conception of the world, cultural symbols, aspects of material culture, aspects of culture-based social interaction. The group of units showing textual dependence is composed of units which can be traced to given texts. It is worth adding that the units belonging to the group can also be allusions to texts. Numerous units originate from the Bible and mythology as well as masterpieces of literature. Modern phrasemes tend to arise in pop culture, for instance, popular songs, films and commercials