The human – flower relationship in the Polish linguistic worldview on the basis of questionnaires and lexicographic data

Abstract

The article analyzes the Polish linguistic view of flowers by studying the human – flower relationship re.ected in questionnaires, and compares it with the image of the relationship reflected in lexicographic sources. The data for analysis come from a qu­estionnaire conducted among students of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin and from Dubisz’s Universal Dictionary of the Polish Language. In the questionnaires, anthropocentrism comes to the foreground: the respondents perceive flowers as friends with a soul (i.e. as human beings), which is not reflected in the dictionary. At the same time, the image of a human-flower is equally pronounced in questionnaires and lexicogra­phic material. Respondents treat the decorative, beautifying, and entertaining functions of flowers as their ability to influence human life and not as ways in which people use the plants. In the opinion of Polish students, flowers influence humans not just by providing esthetic or aromatic enjoyment, as reflected in the dictionary, but in a variety of other ways.