Abstract
This text represents the specific monographic entry (chapter) in a comparative ethnolinguistic dictionary focused on European values, in this volume on the concept of FREEDOM in fourteen European languages (project EUROJOS - "European Linguistic worldview". This chapter is devoted to the Czech concept of SVOBODA.
It is presented in historical development and then through the analysis of linguistic data, textual data (corpus and also coming from culturally important texts from various spheres of social communication) and empirical data (obtained from questionnaires). The main metaphors, conceptual schemes and narrative structures associated with freedom in the Czech context are interpreted.
The concept is implemented in two main semantic profiles - SVOBODA-VOLNOST (based on the physical experience of movement in space) and SVOBODA-SUVERENITA (associated with social value). The specificity of the Czech lexeme svoboda is the possibility to express partner unmarriedness (svobodný / svobodná = single, "free", un-married).