Koncept EUROPA w swiadomosci Litwinów
ENIn the initial part of the publication the author discusses the cultural factors and historic events which did influence the formulation of the perception of Europe within the common awareness of Lithuanians. The further analysis of the concept has got a separative layout: the linguistic system data, questionnaire data, and textual ones have been presented separately. In the analytical part, summarising the previously formulated cognitive features of the Lithuanian picture of Europe, an aspectual layout has been applied. The following aspects are foremost full of contents: political (Europe is associated with the European Union, which unites all the free states and all the free nations), cultural (the longtime rich culture, the symbiosis of cultures), geographical (a separate continent), economic (possessing the common currency and economy), and social (peaceable society, based on tolerance and cooperation). The other aspects within the concept EUROPE are not displayed so distinctly: from among the most significant ones, there can only be mentioned the ideological and ethnical, where as the military and religiousones do not at all pose a significant role in the formation of the base in variable concept. The presented cognitive definition implies that Lithuanians have got a positive attitude to Europe, depicting Europe as one large state/entity, in which peace, justice, and social equity prevail, and in which economic cooperation is encouraged, thus opening the huge perspectives for all the nations gathered in the commonwealth.
