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48ISSN 2712-9519. ЛИНГВИСТИКА И ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ. 2020 №1 (1).
19. Chernyshova L.A. Otraslevaja terminologija v svete antropocetricheskoj paradigm [Branch terminology in the light of the anthropocetric paradigm]. -Moscow: Publishing house MGEE, 2010. - 206 p.
УДК 615.322:83'373.6
А.О. Синицина A.O. Sinitsina
THE ANALYSIS OF COMMON PLANT NAMES: MOTIVOLOGICAL APPROACH (AS EXEMPLIFIED IN LATIN, ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN
LANGUAGES) АНАЛИЗ НАРОДНЫХ НАИМЕНОВАНИЙ РАСТЕНИЙ: МОТИВАЦИОННЫЙ ПОДХОД (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ЛАТИНСКОГО, АНГЛИЙСКОГО И РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКОВ)
This article is devoted to the study ofphytonymic vocabulary of Latin, English and Russian languages. The author analyzes the names of plants, the etymology and motivational signs, which lie in the origins of the nomination in a comparative aspect. Analysis is revealing various approaches to plant nomination in Latin, English and Russian languages, which allowed them to be divided into 3 groups: the exact match of motivational signs, partial match of motivational signs and complete divergence of motivational signs. The analysis defined the most productive group is the group with a partial match of motivational signs, which proves the close connection of the language with consciousness, human thinking and spiritual and practical activity.
Key words: phytonym, motivation, etymology, folk phytonyms, nomination
Данная статья посвящена изучению фитонимической лексики латинского, английского и русского языков. Автор в сравнительном аспекте анализирует наименования растений, этимологию и мотивировочные признаки, заложенные в основу номинации. Анализ выявил различные подходы к номинации растений в латинском, английском и русском языках, что позволило разделить их на 3 группы: полное соответствие мотивировочных признаков, частичное соответствие мотивировочных признаков и полное несоответствие мотивировочных признаков. Была определена наиболее продуктивная группа с частичным соответствием мотивировочных признаков, что доказывает тесную связь языка с сознанием, мышлением человека и духовно-практической деятельностью.
Ключевые слова: фитоним, мотивированность, этимология, народная фитонимия, номинация.
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Introduction
Medicinal plants as an essential element of a people way of life. Nowadays there is an increasing interest in studying the components of the lexical system, which reflect the spiritual and material life of people in modern linguistics. This is due to their natural impact on the human body, and the fact that pharmaceuticals are more natural and more suitable for long-term administration and being a source of natural remedies they treat a person. One can say with certainty that we are living in the era of alternative medicine, recognizing the existence of a complex interaction of the body, mind and spirit. Herbal medicine plays a significant role in the system of alternative medicine. Human life has always been inextricably connected with plants. Since ancient times, people began to notice some characteristics of plants, which were expressed in the features of the external structure and associated with a particular habitat, the content of various substances, etc. In this regard, it became necessary to distinguish one plant from another.
The influence of nomination to the brain of
The process of knowledge transfer as well as its formation occurs through language. The reality captured in the human brain is fixed in speech. Plant kingdom is so vast and diverse that it finds reflection in the language in different thematic groups, including the names of medicinal plants, herbs, vines, mushrooms, flowers, trees, shrubs and others. The names of plants can help restore those concepts that once existed in the minds of people, find a relationship with the world around them and determine the main properties of the «language vision» of the plant world since plant names were formed in ancient times. Medicinal plants, as a whole thematic group, are interesting material for study from the point of view of their etymology with consideration to the features of their shape and connection with various concepts of the surrounding reality. Scholars (Letova A.M.) support this idea indicating that such a high interest in phytonymic vocabulary is due to the fact that the name of plants reflects the process of cognition and exploration of the plant world in the culture of the people [2, p. 30].
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The term phytonym (from the Greek phyto - plant, onyma - name) is one of the onyms (proper names) denoting the names of plants.
Botanical terminology differs in many aspects from other terminological systems, since the phytonyms included in it have both scientific and folk names [5, p. 110-113].
According to Panasenko N. the process of nomination of plants is a special kind of activity, as it stands between everyday and medical practice, as far as more names are given to those objects on which human activity is concentrated [6, p. 218] Giving names to the plants a man first of all emphasizes them out of the general class of plants, then identifies them with already known to him plants or objects, being guided thus by his sensual personal experience.
The semantic motivation of plant names
A good knowledge of various aspects connected with plants is necessary to investigate the semantic motivation of plant names. One of the prerequisites is an appropriate knowledge of botany, involving in particular the identification of plants and their typical features, such as general appearance, shape and appearance of leaves, colour and shape of flowers, fragrance, blossoming period and potential healing properties. Another key factor is the study of the usage of plants which include healing properties, alleged magical properties, customs associated with plants, beliefs and legends [9, p. 174].
The research material for this article are etymology dictionary (Khapaev B.A.) and Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland database (www. bsbi.org). We analyzed 21 plant names in English, Russian and Latin language and identified their motivational characteristics. Despite such a wide variety of distinguishing features (shape, colour, blossoming period, healing properties, etc.), approaches to nominations in different languages often do not coincide. Thus, we classified phytonyms into 3 following groups:
1. The exact match of the motivational signs:
• The phytonym Erodium, according to its etymology, came from the
Greek language as a noun erodios, which means a stork. The Russian equivalent 52
ISSN 2712-9519. ЛИНГВИСТИКА И ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ. 2020. № 1 (1) аистник and English storksbill have a similar motivational characteristic - external resemblance to the beak of a stork.
• A latin name of the plant Herniaria comes from Latin noun hernia and has the meaning of abnormal exit of tissue or an organ through the wall of the cavity. Presumably some plants of this genus are used to reduce hernia pain. The Russian name кильник comes from the word кила, which also means hernia because of its use for abdominal hernias. The English equivalent burstwort consists of 2 roots: burst + wort, where the first root originated from Old English word berstan - «break suddenly, shatter as a result of pressure within». The root wort means «a plant». The whole word describes the same pathological condition in hernia.
2. Partial match of the motivational signs:
• A plant with the Latin name Abutilon comes from Arab noun abutilun («abu» means father, о «tilat» means fiber). The Latin generic name Abutilon is motivated by the fact that this species is used to produce plant fiber from which ropes, twine, etc. are made. The Russian generic name канатник comes from the word «канат». In these languages, a similarity in motivation is manifested as a functional feature of the plant. It is expressed in the way of their use. However, the approach to the nomination of the English phytonym differs from the previous two: the name chinese-lantern is based on the motive of external similarity with the object both in form (resembling the shape of a lantern) and in color (because traditionally in China such lanterns are painted in red). In this case, there are similarities in the motivational characteristic of phytonyms in Latin and Russian languages.
• The phytonym Solidago comes from the Latin adjective solidus which means strong and healthy, and it is motivated by the medicinal properties of the plant. The English name goldenrods consists of 2 components golden + rod and describes it as a plant with tall stiff stems topped with clusters of tiny yellow flowers. The nomination was based on a motivational characteristic based on the color of the flowers of the plant. The Russian equivalent золотарник is also motivated by an external attribute, namely the color of its flowers (golden yellow inflorescences).
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• A plant with the Latin name Urtica comes from the Latin verb uro which means «to burn». It reflects the burning properties of this plant. The Russian name крапива also comes from the word крапить and describes similar properties: it burns, causes blisters on the skin [3, p. 77-78]. The origin of the English version of the name nettle remains unknown.
• The generic name of the Polygonum plant in the Latin language consists of two components: polys (many) and gonu (the place where the lateral organs attach to the stem), thereby defining a feature of the plant structure. The motivational attribute in the Russian equivalent горец indicates its origin from the word горький, which reflects the certain shade of the flavor of some plants of this genus [1, p. 57]. The approach to the nomination of the English plant named knotweed is similar to the Latin name, indicating a peculiar structure of the plant (a nodular stem).
3. Complete divergence of the motivational signs.
• The generic name of the plant Gnaphalium in Latin comes from the Greek noun gnaphallon which means felt, fluff. The choice of a motivational characteristic is explained by the appearance of the plant: parts of the plant are densely covered with gray pubescence. The motivational characteristic in the Russian equivalent сушеница refers to the medicinal properties: increases keratinization process, dries the open wounds. The English version cudweed consists of two components cud + weed. Perhaps an alteration of cottonweed or cutweed refers to its application to cuts. Functional properties are the motivational characteristics of this phytonym.
Conclusion
Having analyzed the names of plants in Latin, English and Russian we may
come to the following conclusion. The approach to the nomination, namely the
choice of certain motivational attributes in 3 languages often does not match. It can
be explained by many extralinguistic factors: geographical location, different
approach to use, etc. It is quite difficult to find mutual points between different
worldviews because each language is unique and reflects a certain way of perceiving
the surrounding reality. Thus, the most productive group is the group with partial 54
ISSN 2712-9519. ЛИНГВИСТИКА И ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ. 2020. № 1 (1) match of the motivational signals. Analysis also reveals that there are cases of complete divergence of the motivational signs in the choice of nominative units, as well as the exact match of these motivational signs in 3 languages. This analysis showed the diversity in approaches to the nomination and how the worldview of different peoples can significantly differ from each other, describing the same object of reality.
The Prospects of study is the construction of a frame of medicinal plants because "frame is one of the means of information transmission, a situation which is kept in the mind of a specialist" [4, p. 137]. It would be interesting to identify the coincidence of the definitional, thematic and structural frames of medicinal plants: to determine knowledge about the subject, about the terminological resources of the studied terms, and the communicative and informative sphere of a medical specialist.
References
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Литература
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латинскому языку // Актуальные проблемы обучения иностранных студентов в 56
ISSN 2712-9519. ЛИНГВИСТИКА И ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ. 2020. № 1 (1) медицинском вузе / под ред. С.И. Маджаевой. - Астрахань: Изд-во АГМУ, 2018. - С. 76-79.
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