ON THE ETHNOCULTURAL BACKGROUND OF THE PLANT NAMES MOTIVATED BY THEIR HABITAT (BASED ON RUSSIAN AND GERMAN DATA)
The article deals with the plant names motivated by their habitat. The study relies on regional and common names that belong to Russian and German traditional nomenclatures of plants and derive from animal names by a metonymic transfer. The author reveals common and particular bases of such transfer. First of all, the transfer may take place in both Russian and German if habitat of a plant concurs with habitat of an animal. Such correlation implies seven coincident habitats. Five of them are common in Russian and German. They are 1) woods, 2) fields and meadows, 3) waters, 4) marshes and 5) shadow places. The one habitat specific in Russian is steppe; the one specific in German is rocks and mountains. The other common bases of metonymic transfer are ‘habitat of a plant concurs with shelter of an animal, and concurs with a place animal usually prefers to stay or visit. To the specific German bases belong the following two: habitat of a plant concurs with pasture of an animal; and habitat of a plant concurs with a place for animal to breed. Another aim of the article is to show how important the ethnocultural background is for plants’ nomination. Common symbolism in Russian and German ethnocultures have such animals and birds like wolf, bear, deer, hare, snake, frog, toad, duck, swan and crane. That is the reason plants with similar habitat have similar names in both languages. Different ethnocultural meaning have elk, woodpecker, raven, crow and magpie (in Russian); as well as chamois, fox, cuckoo, stork, swine, cow, sheep and goat (in German).
Keywords: nomination, habitat, metonymic transfer, plant name, animal name, ethnoculture, the traditional nomenclature of plants
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Issue: 11, 2016
Series of issue: Issue 11
Rubric: LINGUISTICS
Pages: 95 — 100
Downloads: 646