Connections between flower and animal stereotypes in Polish: Motivation, usage, symbolism, and agency

Abstract

The article is concerned with the connections between Polish stereotypes of flowers and domestic animals as described in the Dictionary of Folk Stereotypes and Symbols, at the level of motivation, usage, symbolism, and agency. Since lexemes are verbal exponents of concepts, it can be argued that by examining the interrelations of the relevant stereotypes, we can also observe interaction between the floral and animal conceptual codes. Many common flower names are motivated by animal names or their derivatives. The most frequent occurrence is simple motivation through lexemes that belong to animalistic conceptual code (CC); less frequent is complex motivation (animalistic and anthropological CC; animal and floral CC; animalistic and utilitarian culture CC). In contrast, common names for domestic animals show no examples of motivation through flower names, with the exception of derivatives of the lexeme bazia (‘pussy willow’). Much more frequent are proper names of domestic animals motivated by flower names. At the level of subject-object relations, flowers are framed as subjects or tools of protective, medicinal, magical, decorative, or beneficial (rarely harmful) actions toward domestic animals, while domestic animals are objects of these actions. Both flowers and domestic animals jointly function as a symbol of the love act relating to the anthropological conceptual code.