The article provides an overview of theoretical approaches to analysing lexical units with cultural meaning in Slavic linguistics literature, particularly Slovenian and Polish. It focuses on two main approaches to these units. The first deals with cultural vocabulary that lacks direct equivalents in other languages (non-equivalent cultural words), whereas the second focuses on vocabulary that is characteristic and significant for a particular culture (cultural key words). Both approaches share the term cultureme. The article analyses how different authors define and understand the research subject, what terminology they use, and which semantic areas they explore. Based on the conducted analysis, the author proposes the term lexical carriers of cultural meaning as a hypernym for all the terms discussed, as this term covers a broader range of lexical units that are important for the transfer of cultural meaning.
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