Abstract
One of the key issues of recent linguistic trends is to understand the interaction between language and culture, which can be well observed through the identification of cultural conceptualizations (Sharifian, 2011, 2017). This study explores and compares the basic cultural conceptualizations of tree, a concept which holds a universal symbolic status in human cognition, in Russian and Hungarian folk songs (e.g., Baranyiné Kóczy, 2018b), relying on approximately 800 + 600 texts presented in two Hungarian and Russian corpora of folksongs (Kireevsky, 1986). The study addresses the following questions: How is tree conceptualized in general in folk songs by the Hungarian vs. Russian folk cultural communities? Are specific conceptualizations attached to different tree-types in the two corpora? What similarities and differences of the underlying metaphors can be distinguished in these two systems of cultural conceptualizations? What specific conceptualizations are attached to various tree-species in these corpora? The study utilizes the methodological framework of Cultural Linguistics in that it identifies conceptual metaphors and metonymies in the texts and relates them to underlying cultural models. The research shows that, (a) Russian folk songs tend to employ various tree-types with distinct conceptualizations, whereas tree-species are less dominantly represented in the Hungarian folk songs; (b) the most frequent type of tree is дyб “oak” in Russian whereas rózsafa “rose-tree” in Hungarian; (c) despite some similar generic ideas behind cultural conceptualizations, their representations and the image schemas related to them can be quite different; (d) there are conceptualizations which are only present in either corpus. Overall, it is argued that the figurative uses of trees and parts of trees rely on cultural conceptualizations and are deeply embedded in the cognition of folk cultural communities.
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Notes
- 1.
The evidence for this is the German lexeme Buch, which “was used in the earliest times for the runes scratched on the twigs of a fruit tree (see Ger. reißen); hence it results from Tacitus (Germania, 10) that Buch (lit. “letter”) is connected with Old High German buohha “beech” (Kluge, 1891). Similarly, in Russian, Бýквa has an old Slavic root bōka «бyквa» (cf. Ger. Buch), which comes from бyк “beech” because originally beech was once used to make writing tablets (cf. бepecтяныe гpaмoты “birch bark letters”).
- 2.
According to the convention of Cultural Linguistics the “X as Y” format is used.
- 3.
Note that in Hungarian fa means both “tree” and “wood”.
- 4.
Aszú wine is a very sweet, topaz-colored wine that is produced in the Tokaj wine region in Hungary.
- 5.
Ilona Magyar is the name of a woman who is called for by girls when they need help, some regard her a mythological person.
- 6.
Józsa is a Hungarian family name.
- 7.
I.e. acacia trees.
- 8.
It can also be interpreted as’my sweetheart’.
- 9.
Kiskarácsony’Little Christmas’ is 1 January in the Hungarian folk traditions.
- 10.
’Trembling poplar’ is the literal translation of aspen in Hungarian, Lat. Populus tremula.
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Hamsovszki, J., Kóczy, J.B. (2022). Cultural Conceptualisations of TREE: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Hungarian and Russian Folksongs. In: Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, B., Trojszczak, M. (eds) Concepts, Discourses, and Translations. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96099-5_2
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