On the Connection between Countries’ Onomasiological and Ecological Behavior

Abstract

Five onomasiological features in EU countries are statistically compared to environmental performances of these countries (in selected years) by way of Welch’s t-tests and Cohen’s d. The analyses show, for years with statistically significant results, that national energy use is smaller when the environment is onomasiologically “middle/central” than when it is onomasiologically “around”, the national ecological footprint of one year is smaller when human beings are onomasiologically “beings” rather than morphologically opaque, the national percentage of organic farming is larger when two terms for “organic” are legally protected instead of just one, the national percentage of organic farming is also larger when the term for “organic” is morphologically related to “economic”, and national meat consumption is (in two years) smaller when meat is morphologically not distinct from “flesh”.