The world of scents in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s short stores

Justyna Samsel

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of vocabulary concerning aromatic sensations in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s short stories. Discussing the world of fragrance sensations of Brzeziny author, I focus on elements of perception as a source of scent, ways of scent reception, the perceptor’s feelings and scent valuation by the experiencing subject. In the researched linguistic material, the most frequent sources of scent are: flowers, trees, grass, herbs, soil and human body. Within the lexis concerning olfactory sensations the most numerously exploited are word items scent and odor. Linguistic constructions use mainly a predicate to smell, which serves an euphemistic function with regard to unpleasant smells. The researched texts are characterized by an insignificant share of the vocabulary connotating pejorative evaluation of smell. The process of olfactory stimulants’ reception occurs in two manners. A passive perception prevails that is typical of man. It results from the collected material that scent is concretized by means of notion metaphors: “scent is air (wind)”, “scent is movement”, “scent is water”, and “scent is an enemy”.

Keywords:

olfactory perception, scent, a linguistic image of the world, a metaphor