The metaphorisation of value in the early Polish language : the conventionality of approaches on the basis of the example furnished by the metaphor "a concept is a plant" expressed by the lexeme "kwiat" (with derivatives)

The object of the analysis consists in the metaphorical representation of the concepts-values of the mental sphere in the Old Polish and Middle Polish periods in the plant category. The metaphor a concept is a plant is realised by the use of various words of the lexical field of the plant; I analysed the metaphors which feature the lexeme kwiat [flower] (and its derivatives). The purpose of the article is to direct the reader’s attention to the richness of the realisation of the plant metaphor which represents values in the early ages, to the set of concepts which are thus represented, to the possible relationship of this metaphor with evaluation and a glimpse at its permanence in the Polish language. The metaphor a concept is a plant featuring the lexeme kwiat in the early Polish language was used to refer to concepts which represented various spheres of life – ethical, social, folk values, as well as anti-values, referring above all to the sphere of morality. Therefore the metaphor was used to represent concepts regardless of the evaluations which were ascribed to these concepts. With the course of the development of culture and due to the change of thinking about the world the way the lexemes used in the metaphor a concept is a plant, their frequency and the concepts themselves changed but the plant as a source domain of metaphors continues to be viable in the Polish language.