Recipes in (vegan) food blogs are often advertised as not having certain ingredients such as gluten or refined sugar. In the comments sections of posts topicalising such exgredients (linguistically, no-X constructions like soy-free or no nuts), extreme case formulations (e.g. always or entirely) are employed to (a) construct the urgency of a request for an alternative, (b) index the liability and safety of a suggestion for an alternative as expert advice, (c) construct alternatives as rare and precious finds to share with the community, and (d) compliment the blogger.
This paper analyses discussions about vegetarianism and veganism in francophone social media groups where moral statements play an important role. It sketches a communicative conception of morality as ‘doing ethics’ that zooms in on how morality emerges and is negotiated in interaction by concentrating on linguistic practices that key morality. Based on two case studies, it examines controversies about moral values of food which offer insights in the more general machinery of moral discourse. The data reveal different linguistic techniques which are frequent in, although not specific to, moral discourse. In particular, these are evaluations, pejorative or upgrading lexicon, deontic modality, generalisations, typical speech acts like advice or instruction as well as semantic and structural forms of intensification.
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.
In this chapter, I discuss ethnographic and interview data on language ideologies regarding English in a transnational cultural setting that is based on the production and consumption of specialty coffee. In the terminology of the setting, the community is referred to as Third Wave Coffee Culture and the chapter introduces its history and cultural ideologies before analyzing language-related data from its localization in Berlin. Main results are that in this specific setting, English indexes belonging to the cultural community of Third Wave Coffee Culture, irrespective of the national background of speakers, which is tied to the construction of transnational (post-)class positioning. The study overall emphasizes the relevance of studying language use in communities based on consumption in late capitalism.
Craft beer is currently a highly popular form of conspicuous consumption in many Western societies, including Germany. As such, the craft beer movement is a prime example of ‘lifestyle emblematization’: to partake in it is to be involved in the performance of exclusive and informed identities, a prerequisite for claims to social distinction. This study is grounded in ethnographic data from Berlin’s craft beer bars and complimentary data from the Upper Franconia region, which constitutes a peripheral space in terms of social geography yet doubles as a widely acclaimed center of German brewing traditions. By drawing on comparative data from these two differing sites, we can gain insight on discursive processes of lifestyle emblematization, and the specific role of Anglophone resources therein.
This chapter addresses the central role of health in food discourses and identities as emerging during the production of a TV show about food. Food fulfils a range of socio-cultural functions which are essential for the construction of national, regional, ethical, gender, health, and many more identities. This chapter focuses on the dimension of health, as this becomes increasingly important in eating discourses because of the current moral imperative to live a healthy life and take individual responsibility. The analysis shows, however, that health-oriented identities and discourses are in conflict with other food discourses and identities, such as being a food lover or a sociable person who is not preachy about eating. In sum, talking about food must be understood as a multi-dimensional, often contradictory socio-cultural practice.
In this chapter, I investigate discursive practices in eating shows, so-called Mukbang, on YouTube. Originally a South Korean phenomenon, the object of this study are the globalized, Anglophone, and asynchronous instantiations of these shows. Based on a corpus of English-language eating shows, I demonstrate how the Mukbang performers construct their discourse as a conversation over food which resembles but is also different from traditional face-to-face dinner/lunch conversations. In order to do so, the YouTubers draw on a range of linguistic strategies, such as imperatives, questions, terms of address and nicknames, pronouns, topical choices, and the characteristics of delayed interaction.
The paper presents the construction of two types of expert identity in conversations about food: cultural expertise and culinary expertise. The study is based on data from a corpus of informal dyadic conversations between international speakers of English as a Lingua Franca via Skype. Both cultural and culinary expertise are established and negotiated in a broader identity context. The study shows that the discursive construction of expert identity is a complex dynamic phenomenon that takes place on multiple levels, ranging from lexical choice and the organization of discourse to the employment of pragmatic strategies and negotiation processes. The paper illustrates the key role food plays in identity creation in an online video-mediated setting.
Televised cooking shows have emerged as a genre with an established format in the entertainment industry. This chapter will look at cooking shows as a communicative event with a predictable sequence of acts and a set overt (instruction) and covert (entertainment) goal. This highly focussed and potentially formal communicative event (Irvine 1979) typically relies on strategies of informality, that by now have become a convention of the genre, in order to distract from its directive ‘lesson’ character. In a comparison of several cooking shows by US Southern celebrity chef Paula Deen, I will pay attention to changes in conventions of formality and informality which can be observed over time. Particular emphasis will also be placed on the linguistic features which are indexical to Paula Deen’s US Southern persona.
Food has been a traditional source of humour since the beginning of time but nowadays it would appear that the way we joke about food has changed as comedians have begun to target food fads and dietary choices in new online formats such as YouTube videos and memes. In this chapter, I explore traditional food jokes, that now occur online in multimodal formats such as memes and gifs, that target Italians. I also discuss how Italians themselves use humour to defend traditional dishes that they believe are corrupted by people outside Italy who manipulate and localize original recipes. Providing examples from Twitter and online newspaper fora, I will argue that Italians adopt humour to make serious points.
A hawker is an itinerant salesperson, formerly typically ubiquitous in most urban environments. Despite the popular and useful services they provide, they are often viewed with suspicion. Starting in the 1960s, the government of Singapore has begun to sedentarise the trade into purpose-built ‘hawker centres’ that house individual stalls of foods in a covered area fitted with electrical, gas, and water connections as well as seating space and sanitary facilities. This food hygiene drive has resulted in a permanent immobilisation of the hawker trade. This chapter considers the naming practices of 211 hawker stalls in four centres to reveal patterns (in the use of languages, scripts, and geographical references) that challenge the imposed immobility and evoke memories of actual hawking.
Naming food in a nativised variety of English in a densely multilingual context like Cameroon is a complex phenomenon. This is because certain foods or dishes carry sociocultural significations that may be lost or altered if their original names are translated or abandoned for others. Using data from the food blog <www.preciouscore.com>, this paper explains the word formation processes used and the social meanings embedded in food names in Cameroon English (CamE). Borrowing and compounding emerge as the most common processes, although there are a few cases of metaphorical extension. The data is analysed using the competition and selection hypothesis (Mufwene 2001) and the framework of filtration processes (Anchimbe 2006), both anchored in the World Englishes paradigm.
Recipes in (vegan) food blogs are often advertised as not having certain ingredients such as gluten or refined sugar. In the comments sections of posts topicalising such exgredients (linguistically, no-X constructions like soy-free or no nuts), extreme case formulations (e.g. always or entirely) are employed to (a) construct the urgency of a request for an alternative, (b) index the liability and safety of a suggestion for an alternative as expert advice, (c) construct alternatives as rare and precious finds to share with the community, and (d) compliment the blogger.
This paper analyses discussions about vegetarianism and veganism in francophone social media groups where moral statements play an important role. It sketches a communicative conception of morality as ‘doing ethics’ that zooms in on how morality emerges and is negotiated in interaction by concentrating on linguistic practices that key morality. Based on two case studies, it examines controversies about moral values of food which offer insights in the more general machinery of moral discourse. The data reveal different linguistic techniques which are frequent in, although not specific to, moral discourse. In particular, these are evaluations, pejorative or upgrading lexicon, deontic modality, generalisations, typical speech acts like advice or instruction as well as semantic and structural forms of intensification.
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.
In this chapter, I discuss ethnographic and interview data on language ideologies regarding English in a transnational cultural setting that is based on the production and consumption of specialty coffee. In the terminology of the setting, the community is referred to as Third Wave Coffee Culture and the chapter introduces its history and cultural ideologies before analyzing language-related data from its localization in Berlin. Main results are that in this specific setting, English indexes belonging to the cultural community of Third Wave Coffee Culture, irrespective of the national background of speakers, which is tied to the construction of transnational (post-)class positioning. The study overall emphasizes the relevance of studying language use in communities based on consumption in late capitalism.
Craft beer is currently a highly popular form of conspicuous consumption in many Western societies, including Germany. As such, the craft beer movement is a prime example of ‘lifestyle emblematization’: to partake in it is to be involved in the performance of exclusive and informed identities, a prerequisite for claims to social distinction. This study is grounded in ethnographic data from Berlin’s craft beer bars and complimentary data from the Upper Franconia region, which constitutes a peripheral space in terms of social geography yet doubles as a widely acclaimed center of German brewing traditions. By drawing on comparative data from these two differing sites, we can gain insight on discursive processes of lifestyle emblematization, and the specific role of Anglophone resources therein.
This chapter addresses the central role of health in food discourses and identities as emerging during the production of a TV show about food. Food fulfils a range of socio-cultural functions which are essential for the construction of national, regional, ethical, gender, health, and many more identities. This chapter focuses on the dimension of health, as this becomes increasingly important in eating discourses because of the current moral imperative to live a healthy life and take individual responsibility. The analysis shows, however, that health-oriented identities and discourses are in conflict with other food discourses and identities, such as being a food lover or a sociable person who is not preachy about eating. In sum, talking about food must be understood as a multi-dimensional, often contradictory socio-cultural practice.
In this chapter, I investigate discursive practices in eating shows, so-called Mukbang, on YouTube. Originally a South Korean phenomenon, the object of this study are the globalized, Anglophone, and asynchronous instantiations of these shows. Based on a corpus of English-language eating shows, I demonstrate how the Mukbang performers construct their discourse as a conversation over food which resembles but is also different from traditional face-to-face dinner/lunch conversations. In order to do so, the YouTubers draw on a range of linguistic strategies, such as imperatives, questions, terms of address and nicknames, pronouns, topical choices, and the characteristics of delayed interaction.
The paper presents the construction of two types of expert identity in conversations about food: cultural expertise and culinary expertise. The study is based on data from a corpus of informal dyadic conversations between international speakers of English as a Lingua Franca via Skype. Both cultural and culinary expertise are established and negotiated in a broader identity context. The study shows that the discursive construction of expert identity is a complex dynamic phenomenon that takes place on multiple levels, ranging from lexical choice and the organization of discourse to the employment of pragmatic strategies and negotiation processes. The paper illustrates the key role food plays in identity creation in an online video-mediated setting.
Televised cooking shows have emerged as a genre with an established format in the entertainment industry. This chapter will look at cooking shows as a communicative event with a predictable sequence of acts and a set overt (instruction) and covert (entertainment) goal. This highly focussed and potentially formal communicative event (Irvine 1979) typically relies on strategies of informality, that by now have become a convention of the genre, in order to distract from its directive ‘lesson’ character. In a comparison of several cooking shows by US Southern celebrity chef Paula Deen, I will pay attention to changes in conventions of formality and informality which can be observed over time. Particular emphasis will also be placed on the linguistic features which are indexical to Paula Deen’s US Southern persona.
Food has been a traditional source of humour since the beginning of time but nowadays it would appear that the way we joke about food has changed as comedians have begun to target food fads and dietary choices in new online formats such as YouTube videos and memes. In this chapter, I explore traditional food jokes, that now occur online in multimodal formats such as memes and gifs, that target Italians. I also discuss how Italians themselves use humour to defend traditional dishes that they believe are corrupted by people outside Italy who manipulate and localize original recipes. Providing examples from Twitter and online newspaper fora, I will argue that Italians adopt humour to make serious points.
A hawker is an itinerant salesperson, formerly typically ubiquitous in most urban environments. Despite the popular and useful services they provide, they are often viewed with suspicion. Starting in the 1960s, the government of Singapore has begun to sedentarise the trade into purpose-built ‘hawker centres’ that house individual stalls of foods in a covered area fitted with electrical, gas, and water connections as well as seating space and sanitary facilities. This food hygiene drive has resulted in a permanent immobilisation of the hawker trade. This chapter considers the naming practices of 211 hawker stalls in four centres to reveal patterns (in the use of languages, scripts, and geographical references) that challenge the imposed immobility and evoke memories of actual hawking.
Naming food in a nativised variety of English in a densely multilingual context like Cameroon is a complex phenomenon. This is because certain foods or dishes carry sociocultural significations that may be lost or altered if their original names are translated or abandoned for others. Using data from the food blog <www.preciouscore.com>, this paper explains the word formation processes used and the social meanings embedded in food names in Cameroon English (CamE). Borrowing and compounding emerge as the most common processes, although there are a few cases of metaphorical extension. The data is analysed using the competition and selection hypothesis (Mufwene 2001) and the framework of filtration processes (Anchimbe 2006), both anchored in the World Englishes paradigm.