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Part of
Pragmatics of Japanese: Perspectives on grammar, interaction and culture
Edited by Mutsuko Endo Hudson, Yoshiko Matsumoto and Junko Mori
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 285] 2018
► pp. 219–244

Chapter 9
Genre and the cultural realms of taste in Japanese, Korean, and U.S. online recipes

 | The Pennsylvania State University
 | University of Georgia
 | University of Pennsylvania
This chapter investigates the language, culture, and the discourse of food in Japan, Korea, and the United States, as prototypical exemplars of Western culture (U.S.) and Eastern culture (Japan and Korea). We compare and contrast patterns of discursive representations of food and social interaction using the broad analytic unit of genre. The online cooking recipe contains complex discourse about food as well as reader/user commentary. Genre analysis of this type, including the socially organized interactional exchanges between members of socio-cultural groups, provides insights into praxis – and can serve as robust resources for socialization of novices e.g., students of foreign language, as they come to understand the macro and micro levels of discourse qua social practice.
Keywords: discourse of food, genre, high- and low-context cultures, individualism/collectivism, Japanese, mimetic expressions, pragmatics, publics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Genre as analytic category of discourse: The recipe and the discourse of cooking procedures
    • 2.1Genre as analytic category of discourse
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4. Findings
    • 4.1Recipe content and structure
    • 4.2Commentary content and structure
      • 4.2.1 U.S. commentary
      • 4.2.2 Japanese commentary
      • 4.2.3 Korean commentary
  • 5.Mimetic expressions related to food Japanese and Korean
  • 6.Conclusion and discussion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 16 April 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.285.09str
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Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Toratani, Kiyoko
2022. Introduction to the volume. In The Language of Food in Japanese [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 25], ► pp. 2 ff. DOI logo
Kaneyasu, Michiko & Minako Kuhara
2020. Dimensions of recipe register and native speaker knowledge. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 30:4 ► pp. 532 ff. DOI logo
Kaneyasu, Michiko & Minako Kuhara
2020. Regularity and variation in Japanese recipes. Register Studies 2:1 ► pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Mühleisen, Susanne & Sofia Rüdiger
2020. Chapter 1. Introduction. In Talking about Food [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 47], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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