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Article In:
Cognitive Approaches to Mind, Language and Society: Theory and description
Edited by Mario Serrano-Losada and Daniela Pettersson-Traba
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 11:1] 2024
► pp. 130–158

What frequencies tell us of the foodstuffs used as source domain to conceptualize attractive people in Peninsular Spanish

ORCID logo | Universidad Complutense de Madrid

This paper offers a study of the foodstuffs used by speakers of Peninsular Spanish when referring to an attractive individual. Two online forums were scanned to automatically search for linguistic realizations of the metaphor an attractive individual is appetizing food. A corpus of 860 short texts was compiled, which contains the food terms used in context. The frequency distribution of the type of food and the variable of gender was measured. Results indicate a preference to exploit the metaphor through salty food products and that the foodstuffs used are highly dependent on the variable of gender. Contrary to previous studies (e.g., Caitlin Hines 2000; Irene López Rodríguez 2007, 2008), the frequency of sweets and desserts is not higher with female referents. The findings do not agree with prior assumptions about the foodstuffs used in Peninsular Spanish to conceptualize attractive people and the cultural stereotypes associated with them.

Keywords: food, metaphor, gender, cultural stereotypes, Peninsular Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. appetizing food to conceptualize attractive individuals
    • 2.1Food: An ideal source domain for metaphorical conceptualization
    • 2.2The relation between appetizing food and attractive individuals is experientially grounded
    • 2.3Cultural and contextual constraints for the conceptualization of attractive individuals as appetizing food
  • 3.Gender-stereotyped Food and Beliefs Encoded in Food Metaphors
  • 4.Methodology and data
    • 4.1Methodological approach and procedure
    • 4.2Data
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Frequency distribution
    • 5.2Cross-tabulation results
    • 5.3Discussion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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