journal of linguistic studies

apply in the case of text as in the case of mere plant or animal names. Later on in the
paper, we will observe that the processes of both textual and functional equivalency are
used in finding the Romanian name for English plant names since there is no perfect
equivalency between the English and Romanian equivalents. We shall observe that in
some cases the animal names used in the two languages are the same, whereas in others
they are not.
7. MATERIAL AND METHOD
We have inventoried 80 English common plant names containing different animal
names, gathered from English language and specialised dictionaries and books. Then we
have looked for the Romanian counterparts of the English plant names analysing their
equivalency and frequency. We have also looked at 59 Romanian common plant names
containing animal names and analysed their English counterpart. Thus, we have
undertaken a contrastive analysis of the concepts in the two chosen languages.
8. RESULTS
The plant names we have analysed contain different animal names, ranging from
insects (e.g. fly agaric) to marine animals (e.g. oyster fungus), birds (e.g. gooseberry) and
mammals (e.g. ox-eye daisy). We will group the plant names according to the plant group
they pertain to. First we took a look at mushroom names: fly agaric, wolf-fart puffball,
oyster fungus, turkey tails and yellow stagshorn fungus. When looking for plant names
denominating ferns and mosses, we found: hart’s tongue/hart’s tongue fern, adder’s
tongue/adder’s-tongue fern and stagshorn clubmoss. For trees and shrubs the research
revealed: horse chestnut, dogwood, cowberry, gooseberry, sea buckthorn, crab apple,
bird cherry, buckthorn, alder buckthorn, dog rose and goat willow. The category of wild
flowers brought forth a large number of names: lady’s-mantle/bear’s foot/lion’s foot, red
chickweed, cow parsley, wormwood, sea wormwood, black horehound, harebell, cuckoo
flower, alpine mouse-ear/field chickweed, fat hen, red goosefoot, ox-eye daisy, frog
orchid, pignut, smooth hawksbeard, ivy-leaved toadflax, houndstongue, foxglove, viper’s
bugloss, common storksbill, cut-leaved crane’s-bill/bloody crane’s-bill, meadow crane’sbill,
wood crane’s-bill, yellow horned-poppy, bristly ox-tongue, hogweed, mouse-ear
hawkweed, lizard orchid, horseshoe vetch, henbane, cat’s-ear, bird’s-foot trefoil, ragged
robin, dog’s mercury, monkey flower, bird’s-nest orchid, bee orchid, fly orchid, bird’sfoot,
lousewort, buckshorn plantain, greater butterfly orchid, cowslip, common fleabane,
common water-crowfoot, creeping crowfoot, sheep sorrel, goatsbeard and cow
clover/beebread. Names denominating water plants are: common horsetail/horse pipes,
water horsetail, wood horsetail, hare’s-tail cottongrass, mare’s-tail/marestail, common
duckweed/duck’s meat, narrow leaf cattail. Sea and costal plants: crab’s-eye lichen and
grasses, rushes and sedges: false fox sedge, cocksfoot grass.
If we examine the Romanian plant names we can see, as previously stated, such
names in which the same animal in the English one occurs, and such that contain another
animal name. The following pertain to common plant names exhibiting the same animal:
fly agaric (R muscariţă, with the variant pălăria-şarpelui – ‘snake hat’); yellow stagshorn
fungus (R barba caprei); hart’s tongue (R limba cerbului); adder’s tongue (R limba
şarpelui); buckthorn (R spinul cerbului); goat willow (R salcie căprească); cuckoo flower
(R scuipatul cucului); red goosefoot (R talpa gâştei); ox-eye daisy (R ochiul boului);
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