Tabooing the motif of death and its realities in various social groups of the Opolian Silesia
The purpose of this article is a description of the language expressing the death and its various aspects. Several semantic groups were identified in the collected material: death as a figure, death as an act and as a state, the corps, coffin, funeral, grave, cemetery, and gravedigger. The justification for metaphoric meanings is generally clear and cultural in character. All expressions and associations fall under the category of euphemism. Death is not named directly in order to deny its existence. In the image of death, one refers to the Christian religion, elements of various mythologies, dualistic concept of human existence, and knowledge of the natural world. The survey is the source of the language material.