The concept of justice (pravda) in Croatian

Abstract

This paper analyses the linguistic concept of justice (pravda) in Croatian according to the methodology of the Lublin Ethnolinguistic School. Recent monolingual dictionaries of Croatian typically list only one meaning of the lexeme pravda and lexicographic definitions focus on the social aspect of the term. The paper also analyses the relationship of this lexeme with others (synonyms, antonyms) and lists phrases and sayings related to pravda. An analysis of  a corpus of Croatian texts (of the last 150 years) and the results of  a survey (100 respondents) point to weaknesses in lexicographic definitions of the lexeme pravda, as well as to the complexity of the concept of pravda in Croatian. According to the results of the survey, the most important characteristics of pravda are equality and acting on merit, followed by the ethical aspect (respect, morality, truth) and the psychological aspect (satisfaction/happiness, freedom, conscience).