C U L T U R E O F L A N G U A G E I N T H E P U B L I C D I S CO U R S E

Abstract

A specific characteristic of European culture is its attachment to the written and spo-ken language. One of its most important functions should be bringing together people of dif-ferent confessions, views, motivations and styles of living and being. In this article I attempt to present, that in public discourse words had both -an integrative and disintegrative functions. Which one had a primary role in a particular time and place was significantly influenced by clerical and anticlerical forces. Especially this antagonism is being reflected on the public discourse in countries, where one of the Christian churches plays a leading role. Poland is one of such countries.