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Part of
Talking about Food: The social and the global in eating communities
Edited by Sofia Rüdiger and Susanne Mühleisen
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 47] 2020
► pp. 57–78

Chapter 4
The local and the global in airline food

| University of Bayreuth

Catering on board of commercial airplanes and in airline lounges, referred to as airline food, is one of the main features characterizing different travel classes. This study investigates the language used to describe airline food on websites of different airlines and identifies observable patterns concerning the depiction of different travel classes and lounge types. These patterns are compared to the findings of Jurafsky (2014), who, among other things, found that expensive restaurants tend to stress the local origin of the food. Despite the global nature of aviation, the results show that the descriptions of airline food associated with the premium travel classes are in many respects similar to the menus of expensive restaurants, as local references play a prominent role.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Food, aviation, and linguistics
    • 2.1Food and aviation
    • 2.2Food and linguistics
  • 3.Research questions and hypotheses
  • 4.Data and methodology
    • 4.1Data
    • 4.2Methodology
  • 5.Analysis and results
    • 5.1American Airlines
    • 5.2Delta Air Lines
    • 5.3United Airlines
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.47.04bie
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Primary sources

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