The semantic and syntactic ingredients of Greek dish names: Are compounds a main choice?

Abstract

The syntactic and semantic analyses of 2,500 dish names retrieved from 112 restaurant, tavern, and patisserie menus in Eastern Macedonia and in Thrace in Northern Greece show that only a small number of concepts are denoted by the heads of these noun phrases (NPs): Main Ingredient (MI) of a dish, Way of preparation, Part or Cuts (for MIs with an animal as a source), and the word “portion.” Seventy percent of the dish names are headed by a noun denoting the MI or the Way of preparation in which case the MI is introduced by a modifier of the head. Syntactically, these are mostly normal Modern Greek NPs, although NPs consisting of adjacent nouns offer fertile grounds for discussing aspects of compound formation in this language. This study has instructed the structuring of a knowledge base aimed to support applications in gastronomic tourism (menu translation, provision of gastronomic, dietary, and cultural information about the foods).

Nomenclature of Chinese Street Food Names in Malaysia: A Scalar Analysis

“…Restaurant menus form the main material of food studies, in which the nominal phrases and ornaments are the main findings for the nomenclature of food names. For example, in Markantonatou et al (2021), most of the named dishes were headed by a noun of the main ingredient or by the preparation method used, based on the menus, which were written in modern Greek. The category, which is based on culturally specific names and factual names, is also included in restaurant food names.…”

“…Although many studies have investigated food nomenclature (Markantonatou et al, 2021; Tang & Gu, 2017; Tsujimura, 2018), few studies have specifically focused on the names of street foods and their cross-cultural natures. The Food and Agriculture Organization defines street foods as ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and sold by vendors or hawkers, especially in the streets and other similar places (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2016).…”

Modern Dishes: How Are They Named and What Do They Tell Us about Culinary Trends?

“…These familiar components appear almost in the culinaronyms of any nation language. From the etymological espect, Lehrer (1991) finds out basis components, such as ingredients, cooking methods, and finished results, then Markantonatou et al (2021) emphasis on adding new components, including "parts" and "cuts". Therefore, it can be claimed that in the context of culinary naming new creative components will be added.…”

“…In linguistics, food is a captivating topic, attracting the attention of many researchers. From the perspective of naming strategies, it has also contributed to interesting findings within the subject of cuisine (Markantonatou et al, 2021). The process of naming a culinary product is worth discussing further.…”

“…Additional authors also studied dish names from the perspective of their semantic structure, such as: Lazeeva (2016), Petrovska (2016), Moisenya (2018), Shipilova (20180, Novikova (2019), Tayupova (2019), Rahmawati and Mulyadi (2021), Markantonatou et al (2021). The authors have considered the semantic components contained in the culinaronyms in English, Russian, Indonesian, Macedonian, and Greek.…”