This paper concerns the meaning and use of complex linguistic skills in social life, including in the professional sphere. After an introduction based on theories of language as ‘capital’ and data about Poles’ current language skills, the author presents her own research. The object of the study was to examine the social value of multilingualism in contemporary Poland by comparing the views of students, employers, and language-service providers. The research involved questionnaires, expert interviews, and qualitative and quantitative analysis of employment advertisements. On the basis of the results, it can be stated that the value of multilingualism is variously interpreted depending on the appraising entity. Poland is not, at least at present, a market for homo poliglottus, as multilingualism would appear to be underappreciated.

This study is focused on scholarship on proper names within a sociolinguistic framework. The main aim of this study is to clarify the term socio-onomastics and its meaning and usage with regards to toponomastics. Special attention is paid to the genesis of socio-onomastics and to the relations between sociolinguistics, onomastics and socio-onomastics. The influence of social aspects on the act of naming and on the entire existence of names is also taken into consideration when discussing the use of socio-onomastics. The text discusses views and attitudes towards the topic presented in linguistic literature. The socio-onomastic aspects are predominantly studied in scholarship on personal names, e.g. name creation and choice. In the case of place names, they are studied more rarely and the research pays attention mostly to the usage of place names in communication. Available toponomastic and anthroponomastic works using the term socio-onomastics in their description have been analyzed, as well as theoretical onomastic literature, producing several findings of differences in the usage of this term. The main topics of socio-antroponomastic literature are anthroponymy of various social groups, social aspects of name choice, social aspects of the development of naming systems, popularity of names, nicknames, hypocorisms and slang naming. The socio-toponomastic works mainly deal with the toponymy of various social groups, toponymic competence (knowledge and usage of toponyms), non-standardized toponyms, slang toponyms, social-based toponyms (commemorative toponyms), social-based renaming, and the linguistic landscape.

The studies on lexical availability deal with the available lexicon, the set of words that speakers have in the mental lexicon and which use is determined by the specific topic of the communication. This article presents the preliminary results of an exploratory research on the lexical availability in the Polish language of a sample of 147 students from 6 secondary schools in 6 Polish cities. Following a sociolinguistic methodology, the analysis considers the incidence of variables such as ‘sex’, ‘sociocultural level’ and ‘educational level’.

The article summarizes the results of sociolinguistic study of the language environment of secondary schools in Ukraine, on the basis of which the conclusion about its bilingualism was made. It is proved that the quality of the language environment does not correspond to the declared school status. Changes in the assessment of the language environment of schools from 2006 to 2017 are identified and it is concluded that it is possible to develop recommendations for improving the legal support of the use of languages in the Ukrainian education.

This article aims to analyze the subject matter of Polish informative and reporting utterances (IRUs) extracted from messages sent by postcard. In addition to analyzing the subject matter of IRUs, the article aims to formulate hypotheses about the reasons for discussing specific topics. In addition, the characteristic linguistic devices used in IRUs are described. The considerations show that the subject matter of IRUs is primarily shaped by the text patterns of postcard letters, the relationship of the interaction partners, and their gender.

The article presents the results of a sociolinguistic study of surzhyk in the speech of residents of the North‑Eastern region of Ukraine. The focus is on the main trends of communicative possibilities of surzhyk and its functional features in the situation of a multi‑code. It was found that the conscious use of surzhyk speech is a characteristic primarily of young speakers, who are able to realise its irregularity and use for a certain purpose, although in a limited range of situations. In situations of family communication, they use surzhyk as their ‘home language’. Such behaviour can also be a sign of a certain communicative ‘game’ when the speaker uses any language ‘image’ adapted to the specific needs of language communication. A diachronic analysis of the functional capabilities of surzhyk made it possible to reveal, on the one hand, its gradual ‘ageing’ as a functional first language, and on the other hand, its ‘getting younger’ as a conventional stylistic marker. Besides, its increased frequency in extra‑family communication has been recorded, which may indicate a gradual transition of the Russian‑speaking residents of Sumy to Ukrainian‑speaking forms of behaviour.

The article deals with the problems of prevention in the preservation and development of idioms in the multilingual territory between the Dniester and the Danube rivers, based on the sociolinguistic situation of the region, the language and educational policy in the area and their dynamics, and a search for a solution. The goal involves modeling forecasts (possible development vectors) of the ethnolinguistic situation within the investigated area, in order to be able to avoid negative scenarios, but to move along the path of its harmonious development, to find tools and measures for its constructive management. It is considered that the problems preventing the preservation of this continuum’s linguistic diversity, as well as the development of idioms in a multilingual environment, are caused by both internal (problems of effective implementation of the language and educational policy of Ukraine) and external factors. In order to ensure the preservation and development of the area’s idioms, some negative, unfavorable scenarios in the development of the ethnolinguistic and political situation were modeled. In our opinion, a number of measures should be taken to prevent the ethno‑linguistic situation from developing along such destructive vectors. First of all, it is necessary to form, in some ways reanimate, a positive image of the Ukrainian Language, at least – it should not be perceived by minorities as an imposed language. If the Ukrainian authorities do not have an understanding of this necessity, the European Union could influence the resolution of many partial issues with the linguistic life of the region.