Nomenclatural Processes of Plant and Animal Names in Itu Mbon Uso
Keywords:
Onomastics, Itu Mbon Uso, phytonymy, zoonymy, languageAbstract
This paper focuses on the description of plant and animal names in Itu Mbon Uso. The work examines the linguistic and semantic implication of plant and animal names in Itu Mbon Uso and the processes used in naming them. Scientific names for plants and animals are official and acceptable globally. In Itu Mbon Uso language, these plants and animals have their indigenous names. This research adopts the descriptive method and data were elicited from thirty-five (35) respondents who were selected through a stratified sampling method. The analysis reveals that plants and animals are named, identified and classified based on shared characteristics. In Itu Mbon Uso, plants and animal names reflect the proportion of the grammatical and semantic structure of Itu Mbon Uso language, culture and beliefs. The study further shows that plants and animals are named based on their habitat, appearance, geographical adaptation as well as other salient characteristics. The research is useful to scholars, linguists, students and the general public in Onomastics and recommends further research extensively on interdisciplinary fields between language and natural environmental studies.
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