ANS 2025, February 22, 2025
Anthropomorphism in puppy and kitten names in Holly Webb’s children’s books and their translations by F. Nihan Ketrez (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey)
There has been a growing trend to give human names (e.g., Max, Bella) to pet or companion animals in the US and the other western countries (Safir 1986; Abel 2007; Bergien 2016; Leibring 2016; Herzog 2018, Dorety 2020, among others). This pattern is interpreted as a result of anthropomorphism of dogs and cats in modern lives. In other cultures, other factors play significant roles on the degree of humanization. Ketrez (2024) reports that dogs and cats have different status in the society in Turkey. While cats have free access to homes, dogs have restrictions due to their impure status in Islam and were kept at home only by secular people who adopt a more western life style. This is reflected on the naming practices of the dogs: Dogs are observed to have more modern and foreign names while cats are granted more traditional Turkish human names.
In this study, we examine puppy and kitten names in English children’s literature and Turkish translations to see whether puppy and kittens are different in terms of whether they have human names or not and whether this pattern is reflected in the translations of the books in the same way. 78 of Holly Webb’s books that have puppy and kitten characters were analyzed. The results showed that puppies had more human names than kittens in the original English versions. In contrast, puppies are less likely to have Turkish human names in translation, which is consistent with the pattern observed in pet-naming practices in Turkey.
Biography:
F. Nihan Ketrez is a linguist working on Turkish morphosyntax and child language acquisition. She is interested in pet and infant-/child-directed speech, in particular, address terms and address patterns. As a part of this research agenda, she is studying pet names and sociolinguistic motivations behind them.
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