The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the fact that for the first time in Ukrainian and Polish linguistics, a comprehensive analysis of the self-stereotype of a Pole and the hetero-stereotype of a Ukrainian in the collective consciousness of students of higher education institutions in modern Poland was carried out based on a large-scale anonymous questionnaire (based on surveys from 2018–2020) and compared mentioned stereotypes. For the first time, the images of the "typical", "real", and "ideal" Poles and Ukrainians were analyzed as three versions of the stereotype. Based on the analysis of the self- and hetero-stereotypes of Poles and Ukrainians, the value orientations of modern Polish youth towards representatives of their own and Ukrainian nationalities have been stated. The thesis confirms the practicality of using questionnaire data to identify language stereotypes among a socially homogeneous and quantitatively representative (at least 100 people from one community) group of respondents. Student definitions and counterparts of Polak and Ukrainiec ethnonyms were studied; features of a "typical", "real", and "ideal" Pole and "objects" associated with representatives of the mentioned nationalities are revealed; traits of Poles and Ukrainians are traced based on phraseological units and anecdotes. The stereotype of a "real" Pole and Ukrainian fluctuates between the image of "typical" and "ideal" representatives of the respective nationality. The stereotype of the "real" Pole through the prism of the revealed aspects correlates with the stereotypes of the "typical" and "ideal" representative. Still, the element of desirability and exemplarity dominates it. The stereotype of the "ideal" Pole is based on positive traits from the "typical" stereotype and is also in opposition to the negative characteristics of the "typical" Pole. In the light of the communicative and psychological aspect, the "real" Ukrainian corresponds more to the "typical" than the "ideal". Through the prism of social, political, cultural aspects and "appearance", the stereotype of a "real" Ukrainian more often gravitates towards ideas about an "ideal" representative because it contains more units – exponents of one trait, as well as markers of ideality and desirability (negative sentences, sentences with a component powinien). The model of the "ideal" representative of the Ukrainian nationality within communicative, psychological, political, cultural, and social aspects, and the "appearance" aspect is partially based on positive features from the image of a "typical" Ukrainian and contains some oppositional features to negative features from the "typical" variant. The auto-stereotype of a Pole and the hetero-stereotype of a Ukrainian based on the names of the "objects" characteristic of them through the prism of political, social, cultural, culinary, everyday aspects and aspects of "appearance" and "material values" were revealed. In the students' linguistic picture of the world, the following are associated with a Pole: emblem, white-red flag, sports suit, sandals with socks, package from the Biedronka chain of stores, mustache, big beer belly, Polish national dishes bigos and zurek, dumplings, chop, pickles, broth. The heterostereotype of a Ukrainian in the collective consciousness of students is formed by the following associations: national dress, vyshyvanka, wreath, sports suit, brand clothes, fur, suitcase, shoulder bag, work clothes, sneakers, coral, Ukrainian borshch, varenyky, meat dumplings, sweets, Ukrainian candies, Korivka candies, halva, Roshen chocolate, lard, alcohol, vodka, blue-yellow flag, anthem, national emblem, Pole card. A comparative analysis of self- and heterostereotypic representations makes it possible to find out that the same for a Pole and a Ukrainian are the ideas about them as residents, citizens, respectively, of Poland and Ukraine, patriots, Slavs, and Europeans. Traditional stereotypes were revealed for the two analyzed nationalities: a Pole is a Catholic, a nobleman, a knight, and a Ukrainian is an Orthodox, a Bandera and Ukrainian Insurgent Army supporter, and a Cossack. The perception of a Pole and a Ukrainian in the collective consciousness of Polish youth is associated with Russia; however, the respondents' comments testify to the fallacy and inconsistency of these associations. In the minds of Poland's student youth, a Ukrainian appears as a wage earner, a worker, a cheap labor force, as well as a student, friend, brother, ally, and colleague studying in Poland under the Erasmus academic mobility program. Students associate metaphors common in Polish linguistic culture with the Pole: Janusz i Grażyna, Polaczek-cebulaczek, cebula. The binary opposition "own - foreign" rooted in the mentality of Polish youth has been proven through the prism of which a Pole is defined as one's own, ours, and a Ukrainian as a foreigner, a stranger.
