An Eco-linguistic Study on Plants (A Case Study on Plant Entries in Farhang-e Bozorg-e Sokhan)

Eco-linguistics concerns linguistic expressions that can improve the way human beings deal with their ecosystem. To reiterate, the connection between human language and the environment in which he lives has been a matter of curiosity for years. However, there has remained a question of whether it is nature including the ecosystem in a particular area that has effects on human language or vice versa. The next question which springs into mind would be the quality of the mentioned correlated link (i.e. language and nature) not to mention how these two sides can influence each other. Regarding the effects of language on human attitudes, and dictionaries as a main source of culture, the current study has selected all entries related to plants listed in “Farahng-e Bozorg-e Sokhan”. Based on studying 75,000 main entries, 1,312 entries related to plants have been extracted. Then, they were categorized based on botanical definitions as well as the parts of their body such as “wood, trunk”, “flower, blossom”, “fruit, nut”, “kernel, seed”, “nectar, syrup”, “leaf, vegetable” and “powder, or pollen”. After that, all entries’ usages as mentioned in the dictionary whether being beneficial for humans in the form of “food”, “medicine”, “industrial and decorative use” or being detrimental to humans in the arrangement of “drug, poison, and weed or wild plant” were analyzed according to an eco-linguistic perspective. On the basis of findings, 82 percent of definitions were positively or negatively humanized, while less than 18 percent were neutral in which plants were regarded as independent entities regardless of human benefits. On account of the tangible data in the findings of the study, it seems to be fair to say that human beings directed their attitude towards plants mostly for their own benefits and usages, the notion which was introduced conspicuously in the definitions of plants.