„Narcyz" w języku i kulturze Młodej Polski

Beata Kuryłowicz

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstrakt

The article attempts to present an image of Narcissus in Young Poland’s language and culture. The analyses are based on an open definition formula whereas the considerations – on a conceptual model of a flower which is composed of the following sub-frames: PHYSICAL PROPERTIES, BLOOMING TIME, A PLACE OF GROWTH, MAINTENANCE and A RELATION TO MAN. Detailed analyses prove that the most stable part of a semantic stem of the name is made by elements belonging to the PHYSICAL PROPERTIES domain, particularly such features as “it has white flowers”, “it has a long straight stem”, or “it smells nice”. The greatest number of connotative paths derive just from them. We should also regard the following elements of the sub-frames: BLOOMING TIME, A PLACE OF GROWTH, i.e. “it blossoms in spring”, “it grows in a garden”, as the features characterizing a typical image of Narcissus. Moreover, it results from the research that a connotative centre of the name is created by such features as “beauty”, “happiness”, “joy”, “purity” as well as “vanity”. “self-love”, “selfishness”, “sorrow”, “sleep”, “death”, which have strong linguistic and cultural confirmations.