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. 161–188

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

Chapter 6
Naturalization of the Japanese loanword sushi in English

A cognitive account

 | York University
Published online: 9 February 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.25.06tor
Abstract
This chapter examines where the Japanese loanword sushi stands in its naturalization process into English. Application of Doi’s (2014) scale to usage of sushi in the Oxford English Dictionary shows it is midway through naturalization. The chapter questions the finding, pointing out the problems of Doi’s scale, including its unmotivated ordering of criteria (e.g., precedence of “compounding” over “semantic change”). To assess the degree of naturalization, the chapter suggests considering the degree of entrenchment, which is reflected in (i) token frequency, (ii) use of the loanword in constructions, including snowclones (e.g., Sushi is the new pizza), and (iii) the word’s ability to expand the nomenclatural network. Examination of these points suggests sushi has already moved into the naturalized stage.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Naturalization process
    • 2.1Doi’s (2014) scale
    • 2.2Sushi in OED, the definition of “naturalization,” and the problems of Doi’s (2014) scale
  • 3.The sequence of criteria on Doi’s scale
    • 3.1Semantics
      • 3.1.1Semantic change
      • 3.1.2Figurative usage
    • 3.2Morphology
  • 4.Token frequency
  • 5.Sushi in constructions
    • 5.1Sushi in snowclones
    • 5.2Sushi in Internet memes
  • 6.Expansion of a nomenclatural network
    • 6.1Background
    • 6.2On California roll
    • 6.3Frame-shifting
      • 6.3.1Sushi frame evoked by the Japanese word sushi
      • 6.3.2Sushi frame evoked by the word sushi in North American English
      • 6.3.3Hybrid sushi
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (67)
References
Aubrey, A. (2012, August 16). Coffee is the new wine. Here’s how you taste it. npr. Retrieved from [URL]
Benczes, R. (2005). Metaphor- and metonymy-based compounds in English: a cognitive linguistic approach. Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 52(2–3), 173–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bestor, T. (2000). How sushi went global. Foreign Policy, November/December, 54–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blank, A. (1999). Why do new meanings occur? A cognitive typology of the motivations for lexical semantic change. In A. Blank and P. Koch, Historical semantics and cognition (pp. 61–90). Berlin & New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G. (2010). Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, G., & Hüning, M. (2014). Affixoids and constructional idioms. In R. Boogaart, T. Colleman, & G. Rutten (Eds.), Extending the scope of Construction Grammar (pp. 77–106). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cannon, G. (1981). Japanese borrowings in English. American Speech, 56, 190–206. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992). Malay(sian) borrowings in English. American Speech, 67, 134–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1994). Recent Japanese borrowings into English. American Speech, 69, 373–397. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corpus of Contemporary American English. (1990–2017). Retrieved from [URL]
Corpus of Historical American English. (1810s–2000s). Retrieved from [URL]
Coulson, S. (2001). Semantic leaps: Frame-shifting and conceptual blending in meaning construction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dancygier, B., & Vandelanotte, L. (2017). Internet memes as multimodal constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 28(3), 565–598. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Danesi, M. (2011). What’s in a brand name? A note on the onomastics of brand naming. Names, 59(3), 175–85. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Daulton, F. (2014). Boutique words for the culturally savvy: The common Japanese loanwords in American English. The Kyoto JALT Review, 2, 1–13.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davies, M. (2007). TIME Magazine Corpus. Retrieved from [URL]
(2018). The iWeb corpus. Retrieved from [URL]
Diamond, G. (2016). Making decisions about inclusion and exclusion. In P. Durkin (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography (pp. 532–545). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doi, S. (2014). The naturalisation process of the Japanese loanwords found in the Oxford English Dictionary. English Studies, 95(6), 674–699. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Durkin, P. (2014). Borrowed words: A history of loanwords in English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edwards, P. A. (2012). Global sushi: eating and identity. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 11(1), 211–225. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Encyclopedia Nipponica. (2001). Tokyo. Shogakkan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, T. M. (1997). A dictionary of Japanese loanwords. Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Publishing Group.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, V., & Green, M. (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (1998). Conceptual integration networks. Cognitive Science, 22, 133–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feng, C. H. (2012). The tale of sushi: History and regulations. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 11(2), 205–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, C. J. (1982). Frame semantics. In the Linguistic Society of Korea (Ed.), Linguistics in the morning calm (pp. 111–137). Seoul: Hanshin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1985). Frames and the semantics of understanding. Quaderni di Semantica, 6(2),222–254.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugen, E. (1950). The analysis of linguistic borrowing. Language, 26(2), 210–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, J. (2018). Sushi in the United States, 1945–1970. Food and Foodways, 26(1), 40–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Issenberg, S. (2007). The sushi economy: Globalization and the making of a modern delicacy. New York: Gotham Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamp, D. (2009). The United States of arugula: The sun dried, cold pressed, dark roasted, extra virgin story of the American food revolution. New York: Broadway Book.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kimura, M. (2000). The naturalization process of Japanese loanwords as reflected in English dictionaries: The four-stage hypothesis and associated problems. In J. E. Mogensen, V. H. Pedersen, & A. Zettersten (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium on Lexicography (pp. 293–303). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Langacker, R. (1987). Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Theoretical prerequisites, Volume 1. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Cognitive grammar: A basic introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Le, C. (2010, April 24). Reasons to eat sushi [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Maki-zushi no hanashi henshū iin-kai [Editorial committee of stories of rolled sushi]. (Ed.). (2012). Nihon no dentō-shoku makizushi no hanashi: Kabushikigaisha Ajikan Sōgyō 50-shūnen kinenshi [Stories of rolled sushi, Japanese traditional food: Commemorative publication to cerebrate the 50-year anniversary of Ajikan company inauguration]. Hiroshima: Ajikan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mariani, J. F. (2014). California roll. The encyclopedia of American food and drink, 2nd ed. London, UK: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrow, P. R. (2020). Japanese loanwords in English: A corpus-based study. Journal of Nagoya Gakuin University; Humanities and Natural Sciences, 57(1), 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morton, M. (2010). Times tables. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, 10(2), 6–8. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mouritsen, O. (2009). Sushi: Food for the eye, the body, & the soul. New York: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Namimatsu, N. (2019). Transformation and globalization of traditional food “sushi”. The Bulletin of the Institute of Japanese Culture Kyoto Sangyo University, 24, 37–78. Retrieved from [URL]
Nesteruk, N. (n.d.). How to make sushi [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Niimura, I. (2018). (Ed.). Kōjien, 7th ed. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oliver Maki – Soho. (2018, July 22). [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press.
Ozug, J. (2016, June 9). Homemade Sushi [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Pang, A. S.-K. (2005, June 30). My big fat sushi dinner in Paddington station [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Pullman, G. (2003, October 27). Phrases for lazy writers in kit form. Language Log. Retrieved from [URL]
Renton, A. (2006, February 26). How sushi ate the world. The Guardian. Retrieved from [URL]
Sakamoto, R., & Allen, M. (2011). There’s something fishy about that sushi: how Japan interprets the global sushi boom. Japan Forum, 23(1), 99–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimizu, K. (2012). Tabemono gogen jiten [Food etymology dictionary]. Tokyo: Tokyodo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Slay Magazine. (2017, January 10). Grey Clothing: Why Grey is the New Black. Retrieved from [URL]
Stano, S. (2016). Lost in translation: Food, identity and otherness. Semiotica, 211, 81–104. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sushi Euphoria. (2011, April 24). [Blog post]. Retrieved from [URL]
Takeshita, Y. (2010). East Asian Englishes: Japan and Korea. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of world Englishes (pp. 265–281). London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Canadian Press. (2016, June 13). Chef Tojo of Vancouver honoured as Goodwill ambassador for Japanese food. News 1130. Retrieved from [URL]
Trask, R. L. (1999). Key concepts in language and linguistics. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C. (2006). Semantic change: Bleaching, strengthening, narrowing, extension. In K. Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics, 2nd ed., vol. xi (pp. 124–131). Oxford: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C., & Trousdale, G. (2014). Contentful constructionalization. Journal of Historical Linguistics, 4(2), 256–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whitman, G. (2004, January 16). Snowclones. Agoraphilia: The Center for Blurbs in the Public Interest. Retrieved from [URL]
Williams, E. (1981). On the notions ‘lexically related’ and ‘head of a word’. Linguistic Inquiry, 12, 245–274.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yamaguchi, M., & Bates, S. (2014). A Japanese-English dictionary of culture, tourism, and history of Japan [revised edition]. Tokyo: Sanshusha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yamamoto, M. (2020). English words of Japanese origin: A study of dictionaries and corpora (Master’s thesis, Tampere University). Retrieved from [URL]
Zenner, E., Backus, A., & Winter-Froemel, E. (2019). Cognitive contact linguistics: placing usage, meaning and mind at the core of contact-induced variation and change. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue