Semantic Reflections of Human/Animal Genitalia in Albanian Plant Names

Abstract

The plants are integral part of human life for food, medicine or other uses. The language of a speech community reflects the creative ability of its members, so the vernacular plant names reflect semantically the way how they perceive and imagine specific features of plants. In this context, the process of naming plants in Albanian is codified by transferring the meaning through metaphor and metonymy, or word formation (derivation and composition). The plant names often describe some characteristic features of the plant itself or of its part, in which the communities are interested. The aim of this study is to find and explain the plant features on whose basis plants are named in Albanian language, to point out the reasons of naming plants and relationships between the two codes: the human and animal body and plants, and more specifically, reflections of genitalia code and gender message in the plant names in Albanian folk mentality.

Plants and Religion

“…Folk plant names are based on the denomination processes and formative patterns specific to the culture, civilization and language of a community and represent a part of its traditional knowledge 8 . Folk names assigned to plant species often carry etymological values such as therapeutic effects, morphological features, mythical connotations, and their allegorical values 6 , allowing us a clear insight into the community spiritual culture and heritage 11 .…”

“…Common plant names have many sources and can refer to appearance, shape, size, habit, colour, utility, resemblance to body parts and other peculiar characteristics of the plants 11,12 as well as their medicinal/culinary/religious and cultural use, so they can provide a window to the past -how plants were used in people's everyday lives. These names often describe some characteristic feature of the plant itself or of its part, in which the communities are interested 11,12 .…”

“…Common plant names have many sources and can refer to appearance, shape, size, habit, colour, utility, resemblance to body parts and other peculiar characteristics of the plants 11,12 as well as their medicinal/culinary/religious and cultural use, so they can provide a window to the past -how plants were used in people's everyday lives. These names often describe some characteristic feature of the plant itself or of its part, in which the communities are interested 11,12 . Considering the broad historical and cultural landscape surrounding the naming of plants, it should be noted that plant names undergo significant changes over time due to a complex set of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors 3 .…”

“…Albanian phytonyms are one of the most difficult lexical-semantic groups to study and for this reason as well as for the gap of knowledge on the plant naming process in Albanian, there have been few studies on folk plant names 11 .…”