Derivational Features Of Plant Names In Uzbek, Turkish, And Russian Languages

Abstract

Plant names (phytonyms) constitute a culturally dense and structurally diverse layer of the lexicon, where nomination strategies reflect both everyday experience with flora and the morphological resources of a language. This article explores how derivation participates in creating and expanding plant-name inventories in Uzbek, Turkish, and Russian. Building on a comparative-typological perspective, the study focuses on productive word-formation mechanisms that are especially visible in phytonyms: suffixation, compounding, multiword naming patterns, and hybrid formations where borrowed stems combine with native derivational formatives. The analysis demonstrates that Uzbek and Turkish, as agglutinative Turkic languages, tend to privilege transparent concatenation and regular suffixal models, while Russian, as a fusional Slavic language, shows high diversity of suffixal types and a strong role of evaluative and collective derivation. Across all three languages, semantic motivation (color, form, habitat, use) interacts with derivational formants, shaping stable naming templates that support lexicography, translation, and professional communication. The findings highlight the need to treat phytonyms not as isolated lexical items but as outcomes of patterned derivational choices constrained by typology and strengthened by cultural salience.