Money in the flora code of Russian linguoculture

   Despite the prevalence of research, based on the representation of language and culture as encoded sign systems, this scientific trend has remained relevant over the past several decades largely due to the ambiguity of the concept of the 'linguocultural code' itself. The article studies the flora cultural code in close relationship with the origin and evolution of the forms and types of money. In this way, we reveal the ontological essence of the flora cultural code in the Russian language culture.

   The purpose of the paper is to identify the pragmatic potential of the flora code symbolic elements in the Russian linguistic culture.

   To this end, we studied folk ideas about the plant and material world both in the historical and cultural context, identified, linguoculturologically described and analyzed the 'flora images' of money in the Russian language.

   The cognitive analysis of the meaning-forming language units, which make up one of the basic codes in the Russian linguoculture, determines the relevance of our research.

   Russian spells, folk rituals, proverbs and sayings, phraseological units, idioms, literary texts of classical Russian literature, modern fiction prose, and media texts formed the empirical basis of the research. The analysis of the material shows that the Russian flora linguocultural code contains the archetypes of money. It contains the axiological sense of the economic essence of money as a means of exchange and circulation (vegetabilistic money), a means of calculation and payment (usury). Thus, the flora code of Russian linguoculture is considered not only in the semantic aspect (which is the base of the analysis) – but also in terms of its pragmatic potential. Our research involves empirical, theoretical, etymological, linguocognitive and descriptive research methods, the methods of component and contextual analysis, used for the interpretation of meanings, disclosure of the internal form and content of language units – symbolic elements of the flora code in Russian linguoculture.

1. Alefirenko, N. F. (2002). Poeticheskaia energiia slova. Sinergetika iazyka, soznaniia i kul'tury. [The Poetic Energy of the Word. Synergetics of Language, Consciousness and Culture]. 394 p. Moscow, Akademiia. (In Russian)

2. Bol'shoi tolkovyi slovar' russkogo iazyka. (2014) [Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language]. 1536 p. Gl. red. S. A. Kuznetsov. Saint-Petersburg, Norint. (In Russian)

3. Dal', V. I. (2021). Poslovitsy russkogo naroda v 2 ch. Chast' 2. [Proverbs of the Russian People in 2 Parts. Part 2]. 544 p. Moscow, LitRes. (In Russian)

4. Izotova, N. N. (2020). K voprosu o prochtenii “kul'turnogo koda” v lingvokul'turologii. [On the Reading the “Cultural Code” in Linguoculturology]. Kul'tura i tsivilizatsiia. No 4A. Vol. 10, pp. 5–11. (In Russian)

5. Krasnykh, V. V. (2001) Kody i etalony kul'tury (priglashenie k razgovoru). [Codes and Etalons of Culture (An Invitation to a Conversation)]. Iazyk, soznanie, kommunikatsiia : Sb. Statei. Otv. red. V. V. Krasnykh, A. I. Izotov. Pp. 5–19. Moscow, MAKS Press. Vol. 19. (In Russian)

6. Maslova, V. A. (2011). Russkii iazyk kak sovokupnost' kodov: rastitel'nogo, arhitekturnogo, duhovnogo. [The Russian Language as a Set of Codes: Vegetative, Architectural, Spiritual]. Uchebnye zapiski Tavricheskogo natsional'nogo universiteta im. V. I. Vernadskogo. V. 24 (63). No 1. V. 1, pp. 137–140. Seriia “Filologiia. Social'nye kommunikatsii”. (In Russian)

7. Nacional'nyi korpus russkogo iazyka. [National Corpus of the Russian Language]. URL: https://ruscorpora.ru (accessed: 10. 06.–10. 07. 2021). (In Russian)

8. Ot kakogo slova proizoshlo slovo rastenie (2020) [What Word Did the Word Plant Come From]. Rasteniia. Sbornik informatsii o raznykh rasteniiakh. 11. 15. URL: https://floramir.ru/ot-kakogo-slova-proizoshlo-slovo-rastenie/ (accessed: 15. 06. 2021). (In Russian)

9. Strizhev, A. N. (2007). Sobranie sochinenii v piati tomakh. [Collected Works in Five Volumes]. Vol. 2. Russkoe raznotrav'e. 568 p. Moscow, Obshhestvo sohraneniia literaturnogo naslediia. (In Russian)

10. Usachiova, V. V. (2008). Magiia slova i deistviia v narodnoi kul'ture slavian. [The Magic of the Word and Action in the Folk Culture of the Slavs]. 368 p. Moscow, Institut slavianovedeniia RAN. (In Russian)