THE PHYTONYMIC SPACE OF THE SHORT STORY ʼEARLY ON SUNDAY MORNING SHE WAS DIGGING UP HERBSʼ: ETYMOLOGY AND SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This article examines the processes of formation, historical dynamics and specific features of the functioning of phytonymic vocabulary in the Ukrainian language. Based on an in-depth analysis of historical and lexicological sources, written monuments and lexicographical works, the evolution of plant names is traced from the Old Russian and Old Ukrainian periods (14th–18th centuries) to the formation of the modern Ukrainian literary language (19th–20th centuries). Particular attention is paid to methodological approaches to the study of East Slavic vocabulary, the specific nature of the recording of plant names in official documents, as well as the presentation of phytonyms as idio-ethnic markers of the Ukrainian linguistic worldview through their rich semantic and symbolic potential in folkloric and literary discourses. The study examines the structure, etymological origins and contextual-semantic transformation of phytonymic vocabulary in Olga Kobylianskaʼs novella ʼEarly on Sunday Morning She Dug Up Her Herbs…ʼ. The meanings of plant names have been analysed from a mythopoetic and artistic-symbolic perspective.