CODES OF SLAV CULTURES
journal of slavic folkloristics and ethno-lingvistics

No. 1

PLANTS 

The paper deals with the segment of Serbo-Croatian lexicon that is a field of interaction of kinship and botanical terminologies.

Phytonyms that are, from a synchronic point of view, motivated by kinship terms, fall into several groups:

1) Monolexeme terms that contain a noun - a kinship term, e.g.: bratich, bratichina, djed, machuha, stric, strina, chukundeda, etc.

2) Terms - syntagms with the structure:

a) Adj + N (position N is taken by a kinship term, and the position Adj by a qualifying or a possessive adjective), e.g.: velika baburina, mali bratich, vrazhji stric, brezov ded, mrazova sestrica, etc.

b) Adj + N (position Adj is taken by a possessive adjective created from a kinship term, and the position N by a noun that usually designates a part of the body, a plant, an abstract notion, etc.), e.g.: babino uvo, babina lulica, babin zub, babin naprstak, djedova brada, materina dubchica, majchina trava, nanin jezik, svekrvin jezik, svekrvina glava, etc.

c) (Prep) + Num + Ngen + N, e.g.: dva brata krv, od dva brata krv, od devet brata krv.

3) Compound terms:

a) imperative compounds, e.g.: visibaba, dremideda, vratimuzh, lezibaba, etc.

b) agglutinative terms: kriv-ded, majka-lan, mater-hchera, etc.

4) Indeclinable terms - phrases: krsti kume dete, pusti baba konju krv.

According to etymological criteria these phytonyms can be divided into several categories.

The first category comprises terms that are probably originally etymologically connected with kinship terms. They are usually phytonyms derived from the terms baba and deda, be they monolexeme terms or terms - syntagms in which the place of determinatum i.e. determinative is taken by the terms mentioned.

The second category comprises terms that are not etymologically related to kinship terms, but they are the result of paretymological association with those terms, e.g.: bratich, stric, chukundeda, etc.

The third category comprises terms with a different kind of motivation, i.e. those that originated in connection with a legend or a popular belief, e.g.: majchina dushica, machuhica, etc.

A separate group could be created for terms with their origins in folklore texts, e.g. pusti baba konju krv, od dva brata krv, od devet brata krv.

Kinship terminology is a more fixed system than botanical terminology, therefore phytonyms have only penetrated the stratum of terms of address. The choice of terms is not arbitrary. The terms used in addressing are those of favourite plants (bosiljak), of plants with apotropaeic power (bosiljak, karaviljka, cmilje), of plants used in amatory charms and magic (bosiljak, jagodica, karaviljka, neven/a, ruzha), and plants that are symbols of love and virginity (ruzha, cmilje).

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