Cover not available

In:The Language of Food in Japanese: Cognitive perspectives and beyond
Edited by Kiyoko Toratani
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 25] 2022
► pp. 27–52

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 1
The language of food in Japanese through a linguistic lens

 | Indiana University
Published online: 9 February 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.25.01tsu
Abstract
Communication by language and nourishment by food are among the few things that indispensably shape our daily life. These two critical elements of human life may not appear to hold reciprocal relationships, but language indeed plays a vital role in our food culture in ways that are not always obvious. In rich and creative descriptions of our food experiences, for instance, how, where, and by whom taste expressions are used can reflect upon issues of linguistic analysis. This chapter overviews the ways in which investigations of the language of food, when viewed through a linguistic lens, can make a significant contribution towards a better understanding of Japanese language, culture, and society.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Linguistic concepts and mechanisms in the language of food
    • 2.1Sound-symbolism and mimetics
    • 2.2Morphological regularities and innovations
    • 2.3Lexicalization and metaphors
      • 2.3.1Semantic dissection and lexicalization
      • 2.3.2Taste descriptions by metaphors
    • 2.4Sociolinguistic context
      • 2.4.1Regional variation
      • 2.4.2Language of social groups
  • 3.Identity construct and sociocultural perception
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (57)
References
Akita, K. (2009). A grammar of sound-symbolic words in Japanese: Theoretical approaches to iconic and lexical properties of mimetics. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Kobe University, Kobe, Japan.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cherici, A. & Tsujimura, N. (January, 2019). Genderization, beautification, or dudeification? Different approaches to beer naming. Paper presened at the Annual Conference of the American Name Society, New York City, New York.
Cotter, C. (1977). Claiming a piece of the pie: How the language of recipes defines community. In A. L. Bower (Ed.), Recipes for reading: Community cookbooks, stories histories (pp. 51–71). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Counihan, C. (2012). Gendering food. In J. M. Pilcher (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of food history (pp. 99–116). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cowan, J. (1991). Going out for coffee? Contesting the grounds of gendered pleasures in everyday sociality. In P. Loizos & E. Papastaksiarchis (Eds.), Contested identities: Gender and kinship in modern Greece (pp. 180–202). Princeton: Princeton University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fischler, C. (1988). Food, self and identity. Social Science Information, 27(2), 275–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
German, K. (2011). Memory, identity, and resistance: Recipes from the women in Theresienstadt. In J. M. Cramer, C. P. Greene, & L. M. Walters (Eds.), Food as communication: Communication as food (pp. 137–154). New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hamano, S. (1998). The sound-symbolic system of Japanese. Tokyo: Kurosio/CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M. (2009). Lexical borrowing: Concepts and issues. In M. Haspelmath & U. Tadmor (Eds.), Loanwords in the world’s languages: A comparative handbook (pp. 35–54). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayakawa, F. (2003a). Tabemono no tekusuchā to gengohyōgen 1 [Food texture and language expression 1]. Shokuseikatsu, 97(9), 40–45.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2003b). Tabemono no tekusuchā to gengohyōgen 2 [Food texture and language expression 2]. Shokuseikatsu, 97(10), 38–42.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004a). Shokugo no hitotoki [A restful moment after meal]. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004b). Shokukankaku no giongo/gitaigo [Mimetics of food texture]. Ashita no Shokuhin Sangyō, 9, 9–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006). Taberu nihongo [Japanese for eating].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayakawa, F., Hatae, K., & Shimada, J. (2000). Shokukankaku no giongo/gitaigo no tokuchōzuke [Characterization of mimetics for food texture]. Nihon Shokuhin Kagaku Kōgaku Kaishi, 47, 197–207. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Higashiyotsuyanagi, S. (2010). The history of domestic cookbooks in modern Japan. In E. C. Rath, & S. Assmann, (Eds.), Japanese foodways, past and present (pp. 129–144). Champaign: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hinton, L., Nichols, J., & Ohala, J. (1994). Introduction: Sound-symbolic processes. In L. Hinton, J. Nichols, & J. Ohola (Eds.), Sound Symbolism (pp. 1–12). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hiraga, M. (May, 2018). What’s in a name?: The case of Japanese sake. Paper presented at the Conference on the Language of Japanese Food, York University, Toronto, Canada.
Holtzman, J. (2018). The weakness of sweetness: Masculinity and confectionary in Japan. Food, Culture & Society, 21(3), 280–295. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irwin, M. (2011). Loanwords in Japanese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jurafsky, D. (2014). The language of food: A linguist reads the menu. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kita, S. (1997). Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics. Linguistics, 35, 379–415. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klink, R. R. (2000). Creating brand names with meaning: The use of sound symbolism. Marketing Letters, 11(1), 5–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001). Creating meaningful new brand names: A study of semantics and sound symbolism. Journal of Marketing: Theory and Practice, 9, 27–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Komori, M. (2003). Motto gokan-de ajiwau [Savor with five senses]. In K. Seto (Ed.), Kotoba-wa aji-o koeru [Words exceed taste] (pp. 79–119). Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, R. (2006). Identity a la carte: You are what you eat. In A. de Fina, D. Schiffrin, & M. Bamberg (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp. 142–165). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehrer, A. (1969). Semantic cuisine. Journal of Linguistics, 5, 39–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1972). Cooking vocabularies and the culinary triangle of Lévi-Strauss. Anthropological Linguistics, 155–71.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1978). Structures of the lexicon and transfer of meaning. Lingua, 45, 95–123. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levin, B. (1993). English verb classes and alternations: A preliminary investigation. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lupton, D. (1996). Food, the body and the self. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maurer, D., Pathman, T., & Mondloch, C. J. (2006). The shape of boubas: Sound–shape correspondences in toddlers and adults. Developmental Science, 9, 316–322. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mester, R. A., & Ito, J. (1989). Feature predictability and underspecification: Palatal prosody in Japanese mimetics. Language, 65, 258–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Muto, A. (2003). Aji-kotoba-no giongo, gitaigo – Shoku-no onomatope [Taste-describing phonomimes and phenomimes – Mimetics on food]. In K. Seto, (Ed.), Kotoba-wa aji-o koeru [Words exceed taste] (pp. 241–300). Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ngo, M. K., Misra, R., & Spence, C. (2011). Assessing the shapes and speech sounds that people associate with chocolate samples varying in cocoa content. Food Quality and Preference, 22, 567–572. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohala, J. (1994). An ethological perspective on common cross-language utilization of F0 of voice. Phonetica, 41, 1–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohashi, M. (2015). Sizzle word: Shizuru wādo no genzai [Sizzle word today]. Tokyo: B.M.F.T.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Satake, H. (2007). “Taku” to “niru” – Ikinokoru shoku-no hyōgen [“Taku” and “niru” – Surviving food expression]. Vesta, 65, 16–19.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seto, K. (2003a). Gokan-de ajiwau [Tasting with five senses]. In K. Seto (Ed.), Kotoba-wa aji-o koeru [Words exceed taste] (pp. 62–78). Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2003b). Kotoba-wa aji-o koeru [Words exceed taste]. Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seto, K., Yamamoto, T., Kusumi, T., Sawai, S., Tsujimoto, T., Yamaguchi, H., & Koyama, S. (2005). Ajikotoba-no sekai [The world of taste vocabulary]. Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shioda, T. (2003). Shoku-kanren-yōgo-o meguru goiteki-na “yure” [Variation in the food-related vocabulary]. Hōsō Kenkyū to Chōsa, 10, 32–53.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, J. (2006). Loan phonology is not all perception: Evidence from Japanese loan doublets. Japanese/Korean Linguistics, 14, 63–74.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sobal, J. (2005). Men, meat, and marriage: Models of masculinity. Food and Foodways, 13(1), 135–158. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tamori, I., & Scourup, L. (1999). Onomatope: Keitai to imi [Onomatopoeia: Morphology and semantics]. Tokyo: Kurosio.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsujimura, N. (2014). An introduction to Japanese linguistics, 3rd edition. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018a). Recipe names in Japanese cookbooks as a gateway to interpersonal communication. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 66(4), 233–245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018b). From tasty adjective to succulent metaphor: What the language of food reveals. Japanese/Korean Linguistics, 25, 309–326.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(forthcoming). Cooking verbs and the cultural conceptualization of cooking processes in Japanese. In M. Reif and F. Polzenhagen (Eds.), Cultural linguistics, ideologies and critical discourse studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilk, R., & Hintulian, P. (2005). Cooking on their own: Cuisines of manly men. Food and Foodways, 13(1), 159–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, J. (1976). Synaesthetic adjectives: A possible law of semantic change. Language, 52, 461–478. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, H. (2003). Sarani gokan-de ajiwau [Savor with five senses]. In K. Seto (Ed.), Kotoba-wa aji-o koeru [Words exceed taste] (pp. 120–153). Tokyo: Kaimeisha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yonekawa, A. (1998). Wakamonogo-o kagaku-suru [A scientific study of youth language]. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Zokugo, ingo-wa naze umaretaka [Why was slang/secret language created]. Vesta, 65, 25–27.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yorkson, E., & Menon, G. (2004). A sound idea: Phonetic effects of brand names on consumer judgments. Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 43–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwicky, A., & Zwicky, A. (1980). America’s national dish: The style of restaurant menus. American Speech, 55, 87–92. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue