MOTIVATORS OF SUBLIMATED EVALUATION SEMANTICS IN ENGLISH, GERMAN, RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN NAMES OF MEDICINAL PLANTS

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this article was to perform a cognitive onomasiological reconstruction of the semantic component, that is related to the sublimated estimation meanings inherent in motivators of English, German, Russian and Ukrainian medicinal plants’ names. The goal has been realized through several research stages: determining the quantitative and qualitative parameters of evaluative motivators in the body of the studied material, identifying their types, comparing the data obtained for related languages inside the language groups and generalizing across the language groups.

Methods. The following methods were employed to achieve the goals of this research paper: comparative-historical method, namely, internal reconstruction to identify related evaluative motivators for the languages within their language groups, and semantic reconstruction to reveal the original motive of the phytonymic name; cognitive-onomasiological analysis has established the status of evaluative motivators in the onomasiological structures of plant nominations; the method of cognitive reconstruction has determined the stage of human cognitive activity at which the semantic component of sublimated evaluation is formed.

Results. The mixed motivational type is prevailing for plant nominations with an evaluative semantic component, 93% прикладів в англійській і 91.5% прикладів фітонімів у німецькій мові, по 69% і 62% – в російській і українській). The results of the study have revealed that languages within language groups are characterized by mostly conjoint motivational parameters for phytonyms with the semantic component of sublimated evaluation. We could not identify modus-type motivators of aesthetic evaluation in English. The common feature for all the studied languages is the metaphorization of the concepts of ‘sun’, ‘gold’, ‘stars’, ‘female beauty’ to designate the names of medicinal plants with a semantic component of aesthetic evaluation. Ethical evaluation meanings in the motivators of phytonyms are formed through metaphorization of theological concepts.

Conclusions. In all the studied languages, evaluative motivators are not a priority in the plant nomination process, instead, motivators referring to the objective features of the plants are more often selected. The universal parameters of the semantic component of sublimated evaluation for the languages of the Germanic and Slavic groups are the predominance of associative-terminal motivators in terms of quantitative indicators as compared to modus motivators. The emotional constituent of this type of evaluation in all the studied languages is less prominent as compared to evaluation types of lower levels, since evaluative meanings belonging to higher levels of cognitive activity are mostly based on the rational component.