Spatial metaphor in Hungarian and Polish demonstrative and personal pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns can be used not only to express physical distance, but also to attitude, politeness, mental distance by engaging them in spatial metaphor. The study presents function and employment of pronouns engaged in spatial metaphor for expressing various social attitudes. Our language activity, grammatical and lexical choices are governed by the way we perceive our world, and for this study specifically social world, thus the choice of specific pronoun is not only a grammatical choice, but takes part in construing. Distance and proximity expresses positive or negative attitude, solidarity, inclusivity and exclusivity and mental distance, providing also a way to refer to tabu. The above mentioned can be observed both in Polish and Hungarian on material originating from the researcher’s corpora and others, active in field researchers.