Jak polscy kaktusiarze „mówią” o swoich roślinach
How Polish Cactus Growers “Talk” About Their Plants

Summary/Abstract: The hobby cultivation of cacti in Poland dates back to the 19th century, but it flourished most in the 1930s and 1960s. The language of cactus growers has developed in two official and colloquial varieties, in both of which official botanical terminology predominates. In the colloquial variety, jargon synonyms often appear. They are created by morphological derivation (decomposition and suffixation); less often, they are usually created by semantic derivation. Imagery and collocations are carriers of the linguistic image of cacti, which appear to cactus growers as being immature and requiring care, like children (there is a similar image of plants in Polish dialects). Women are mainly responsible for the evolution of this emotional sociolect variant.

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