Food terminology as a system of cultural communication

Abstract

In this study on food terminology and culture, Frame-based Terminology Theory (FBT) (Faber 2012, 2015) was combined with corpus analysis to explore the use of culture-specific terms in the food categories of bread and rice. For the sake of comparison, semplates (Levinson and Burenhult 2009; Burenhult 2008) were formulated for food, bread, and rice, as a kind of cultural frame to highlight the relatedness of these categories, based on the actions that were most frequently linked to them in our corpus. For this purpose, an FBT semantic analysis of these terms in a general language corpus was combined with an analysis of their cultural contexts in the literary work of authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Najat El Hachmi, Chimamanda Adichie, and others. The situations portrayed in their novels reflect the cultural embeddedness of food and its communicative value.

Food metaphors and humour in Nigerian online interaction

“…Food communicative practices are so intricate that diverse and very deep meanings on the manner of serving food and the way it is eaten can be expected. Faber and Claramonte (2017, p. 157), shedding light on serving food as a signifier across cultures, write: ‘the serving of one piece of food instead of another is never casual. Each culture decides what is permissible to eat, as determined by religious beliefs, class identification, ethnicity, and gender roles’.…”

Sensorial discourse and corpus in the digital humanities era: The example of the wine language

“…(2) alors là euh bon a euh un arôme goût miel donc un petit peu comme ça fort en bouche et et quoi fort au nez surtout pour l'instant euh fort au nez c'est le goût de miel qui apparaît et puis après dans le fond on a l'arôme fleur blanche euh fleur d'acacias / voilà (FR_VG_IL_01) Language and sensoriality are extremely linked, this is the well-recognized fact, what is not however acknowledged is the nature of the link(s). The most promising way is to consider the sensoriality as multifactorial (essentially based on experience which is it-self multimodal per se, see below) and to include it in cognitive structures like frames (Fillmore, 1985) (see also Faber & África Vidal Claramonte, 2017). Sensorial reception is then combined to other integrated cognitive complexes such as emotions and experience.…”

How Culture, Gender, Religion, Social Class, and Voyeurism Together Shape Individuals’ Eating Behaviors: A Discourse on Food Communication

“…Therefore, food should be examined from a semiotic perspective just as Roland Barthes has said. Barthes claims that how the food appears on a plate, with which methods it has been prepared, how it is served, the way it is eaten with table manners, the senses that it creates all convey some meanings because they are all a combination of different sign systems which help people to communicate (Faber & Claramonte, 2017). Therefore, in this research paper, how consuming a type of food can actually shape an individual's identity and how the discourse on food from many different angles, which are culture, gender, religion, class, and voyeurism, can be formed are discussed.…”