Of Shadowcats and Pipeweed: Fantastic Animal and Plant Names in a Cross-linguistic Comparison

Abstract

The paper focuses on the names of fictitious species of animals and plants and on their position in the creation of fictional worlds. The examined sample of occasionalisms, or nonce words, is drawn from popular and influential writings, which include J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, Terry Pratchett’s texts, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games series and George R. R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire series. The position of the sign in the word-formation system of both the original language of the work and of selected translations is analyzed – mainly English, German, and Czech versions are taken into account. A cross-linguistic comparison leads to the conclusion that the choices made by the writer or the translator in naming fictional species correspond, on the one hand, to the linguistic habits of the language in question, while, on the other hand, providing room for linguistic experimentation and influence from the language of the original text. The paper also shows how the chosen texts, through the usage of fictitious names of species, attempt to meet the readers’ expectations for speculative literature. The presence of boundary crossing, hybridization, and linguistic creativity makes foregrounded world-building possible. However, accentuated connections between the words and between the species of the fictional and the actual world also show that an unambiguous, simpler world is presented this way. Word-formation is presented by the study as a way to link the actual world and the simplified speculative world, thus highlighting its importance.