Cognitive mechanisms of nominating plants in English

The article deals with cognitive models underlying the process of plant categorization by the speakers. Having analyzed 200 names of herbs and flowers in English, the authors differentiated three cognitive models, which the phytonyms categorization is based on: metaphoric, metonymic and propositional. It is shown that “the codes of culture”, or in other words, well-known realia, are used as sources for nomination; on their basis typical cognitive models are formed. Since the names of flowers and herbs in the English language are mostly compound words, the identified cognitive models are described taking into account the action of the cognitive word-formation mechanisms of proverse and reverse. The first mechanism structure of a phytonym presupposes the direct order of compound-word components as a result of the initial word-combination integration. This word building mechanism is typical of the compound structures “adjective / verb + noun”. The reversive mechanism represents the inner structure of a phytonym as a result of reverse transformation of the word-combination initial components. This type of mechanism is characteristic of the phytonyms created on the basis of the structures “noun + noun”, “noun + ’ + noun”. The article describes the models of proverse and reverse structuring, which are typical of English phytonyms. The prospects of the research are to study the cognitive models and mechanisms underlying plant nomination in a comparative aspect based on the material of several languages