PHYTONYMS IN A CHKDREN`S TALE BY MAURICE DRUON “TISTOU LES POUCES VERTS”

Abstract

The plant world is a part of living nature that has a significant impact on people’s lives. Floristic vocabulary is a significant layer of the lexical-semantic system of the French language. Phytonyms are a peculiar group of lexicon, which has been of great interest to linguists in recent years. At the same time, in recent decades, the interest of researchers in the artistic text as a complex multi-level system is growing. The literary fairy tale for children «Tistou les pouces verts» by Maurice Druon is characterized by a special richness of phytonyms, which are important components of both figurative and generally nominative (object-conceptual) units of the artistic text. The purpose of the work is the description of the phytonymic lexicon and the study of the peculiarities of the use of phytonyms in M. Druon’s work «Tistou les pouces verts». The object of the study is the phytonymic lexicon of M. Drewon’s work «Tistou les pouces verts». The subject of the study is the lexical units used to denote the flora and the peculiarities of their use in this artistic text. In the proposed investigation, an attempt was made to divide the phytonyms present in the text of the fairy tale into groups. The main character of the fairy tale for children «Tistou les pouces verts» perceives the plant world that surrounds him with admiration, in addition to decorativeness, he sees a certain benefit in flowers and, having discovered his gift, uses them in the fight against various types of evil. The author uses more than 90 phytonyms, which shows the young reader how human life is closely connected with the plant world, how certain plants can change people’s lives for the better. In addition to the actual nominative function, the names of plants acquire different emotional colors, determine the degree of disaster and often convey the logic of the main character’s decision-making regarding the choice of a plant. Having analyzed the names of plants and the contexts of their use in the text of the fairy tale, we can conclude that the motives determining the composition of the plant lexicon of the fairy tale for children are mainly the prevalence of plants in the flora of France and the expediency of their use to improve people’s lives and correct life’s troubles, in the fight against one or another evil. It should be noted that only one plant, wheatgrass (le chiendent), in the text of the fairy tale equals disaster.