LingVaria (Mar 2015)
Etymologia a językowo-kulturowy obraz jałowca i kaliny
Abstract
Etymology and the cultural-linguistic image of jałowiec ‘juniper’ and kalina ‘viburnum’ The paper tries to answer the question about the onomastic base of the names for ‘juniper’ and ‘viburnum’, i.e. which of their features or what image of these plants has been preserved in their names. The author tests whether the features captured in literary and dialectal Polish names for these shrubs are confirmed by folk texts, popular narratives and beliefs. Hypotheses put forward by etymologists are verified and confronted with the linguistic material which the author used to reconstruct the linguistic-cultural image of juniper and viburnum in colloquial and folk Polish. The paper is a yet another voice in the discussion about the suitability of ethnolinguistic research for the study of etymology, and the usefulness of etymology for ethnolinguists.
Keywords