Metaphor: FOOD IS PERSONALITY
In this metaphor, food is used to describe personalities and mental states.
Examples:
• “He is so nutty” or “She is nuts!” to mean crazy or silly.
• “She is going bananas” to mean going crazy.
• “She is as sweet a cherry pie” or “He is as sweet as a candy bar” to mean that a person is very nice or kind.
• “He is as cold as an ice cube” to mean that a person has an unkind, inconsiderate personality.
• “They are as smooth as honey” to mean smooth-talking.
In these metaphors, the qualitative characteristics of the food are being referenced as a personality trait. Honey is very smooth, and therefore can mean “smooth-talking.” Cherry pie and candy bars are very sweet, and can therefore refer to a sweet or kind personality. Nuts and bananas don’t fit this category exactly, but the idea of a nut cracking is similar to a person “cracking” and going insane. A banana is a slightly mushy fruit, and a crazy person’s brain could be thought of as mushy because it has lost the capability to process things in a coherent way.
Metaphor: FOOD IS MEN of MEN ARE FOOD
This metaphor deals with attractiveness of men. There are commonly used metaphors that deal with temperature of food, such as the phrase, “he’s so hot!” There are also others that associate men with food items, most often meat or something sweet.
Examples:
• “He’s a hunk (of meat)” or “He’s a piece of meat.”
• “He looks yummy” or “He looks delicious.”
• “Man candy” or “Eye candy”
When paired with Hines’ idea of women as dessert metaphor, it seems that food can be used to metaphorically describe or refer to both sexes, and people of different ages (children are sometimes called “pumpkin” or “honey bunch”).
Metaphor: FOOD IS MONEY
There are several slang terms that can be used interchangeably (as long as the situation allows) with the word “money.”
Examples:
• “Dough” as in “I’m making a lot of dough at my new job.”
• “Bread”
• “Cheese”
• “Cake”
• “Steak”
• “Cream”
• “Bacon” as in “Bringing home the bacon.”
These metaphors make sense because money is a basic necessity that is required to buy food, which is another basic necessity. “Bringing home the bacon” is probably the most literal example of this, even if bacon is not eaten as commonly as in years past. “Dough” and “bread” are also literal in this sense. “Steak,” “cake,” and “cream” are luxury foods, and would be appropriate to use if someone was making, or had a lot of money, and therefore are less commonly heard. All of these examples can be used in the same way as the first example, “I’m making a lot of dough at my new job,” or “I need to get a hold of some more cheese.”
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Taste Words
The product where I found taste terms is “Chips Ahoy! Chewy” chocolate chip cookies, made by Nabisco. The package displays various phrases in bold, colorful text that pop out against the red background, as well as large drawings of the cookies. There is no doubt that the packaging is eye-catching, but the phrases themselves would also draw potential buyers to the product.
Some of these phrases include:
“Real chocolate chip cookies.”
“Snack ’n Seal Keeps Cookies Fresh!” advertised by the “easy open pull tab”
“Experience the taste that your family’s gotta have.”
“Rich, chocolatey, irresistibly delicious.”
The word “fresh” appears five times. The original Chips Ahoy! cookies are very hard, so the repetition of “fresh” could emphasize the chewiness and softness of this newer type of Chips Ahoy! (as does the word “chewy” itself).
The word “real” appears three times. Chips Ahoy! cookies are made by Nabisco, which is a Kraft company. Kraft is most famous for making Kraft cheese, which is about as close to fake as food gets. Nabisco makes products like Swiss Miss hot chocolate (sickeningly sweet), and Nesquick chocolate milk (also very, very sweet). Niether of these products are very much like milk. There is also a slew of ingredients, many of which are not very real-sounding, such as “dextrose,” “partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil,” “high fructose corn syrup,” and “caramel color.” The word “real” seems to be trying to counter perceptions that the cookies may be unreal; the word itself is bright, colorful and large on the package compared to the brand words “Nabisco” and “Kraft,” and the tiny font of the ingredients list.
The phrases on the package are not always grammatically correct, including the “’n” in “Snack ’n Seal” and the “family’s gotta” in “Experience the taste that your family’s gotta have,” and the invented adjective, “chocolatey” in “Rich, chocolatey and irresistibly delicious.” Perhaps this is done to appeal to children, who may identify with this phrasing because it more closely matches the way that they speak, as well as adults and teenagers who would purchase these cookies for themselves. The word “family” appeals to parents who will buy Chips Ahoy! cookies for their children.
Clearly these cookies are not trying to appeal to an educated, health-conscious demographic. However, by using words “fresh” and “real” the brand seems to realize that the general public is starting to become more aware of nutrition and food quality. Yet, at the same time, the packaging is not suggesting that the cookies are no longer a dessert food, or taste bad because they are supposedly healthy. One phrase in particular, “Rich, chocolatey and irresistibly delicious,” which uses words that might also describe a dense chocolate cake, adds a quality of self-indulgence to the product.
It seems that the packaging gives the taster several words to describe the cookies before they actually sample them. “The Color of Odors” pointed out that olfactory transduction is about 10 times slower than visual detection. Since the sense of smell plays a big role in how food tastes, perhaps these words influence the way that Chewy Chips Ahoy! taste. If so, would grammatical differences between different languages cause tasters in other countries to experience different tastes, (or at least to describe these tastes differently) as with experiments in space, time, objects, and substances described in “Linguistic Relativity?” I would be very interested in seeing the results of that experiment.
Some of these phrases include:
“Real chocolate chip cookies.”
“Snack ’n Seal Keeps Cookies Fresh!” advertised by the “easy open pull tab”
“Experience the taste that your family’s gotta have.”
“Rich, chocolatey, irresistibly delicious.”
The word “fresh” appears five times. The original Chips Ahoy! cookies are very hard, so the repetition of “fresh” could emphasize the chewiness and softness of this newer type of Chips Ahoy! (as does the word “chewy” itself).
The word “real” appears three times. Chips Ahoy! cookies are made by Nabisco, which is a Kraft company. Kraft is most famous for making Kraft cheese, which is about as close to fake as food gets. Nabisco makes products like Swiss Miss hot chocolate (sickeningly sweet), and Nesquick chocolate milk (also very, very sweet). Niether of these products are very much like milk. There is also a slew of ingredients, many of which are not very real-sounding, such as “dextrose,” “partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil,” “high fructose corn syrup,” and “caramel color.” The word “real” seems to be trying to counter perceptions that the cookies may be unreal; the word itself is bright, colorful and large on the package compared to the brand words “Nabisco” and “Kraft,” and the tiny font of the ingredients list.
The phrases on the package are not always grammatically correct, including the “’n” in “Snack ’n Seal” and the “family’s gotta” in “Experience the taste that your family’s gotta have,” and the invented adjective, “chocolatey” in “Rich, chocolatey and irresistibly delicious.” Perhaps this is done to appeal to children, who may identify with this phrasing because it more closely matches the way that they speak, as well as adults and teenagers who would purchase these cookies for themselves. The word “family” appeals to parents who will buy Chips Ahoy! cookies for their children.
Clearly these cookies are not trying to appeal to an educated, health-conscious demographic. However, by using words “fresh” and “real” the brand seems to realize that the general public is starting to become more aware of nutrition and food quality. Yet, at the same time, the packaging is not suggesting that the cookies are no longer a dessert food, or taste bad because they are supposedly healthy. One phrase in particular, “Rich, chocolatey and irresistibly delicious,” which uses words that might also describe a dense chocolate cake, adds a quality of self-indulgence to the product.
It seems that the packaging gives the taster several words to describe the cookies before they actually sample them. “The Color of Odors” pointed out that olfactory transduction is about 10 times slower than visual detection. Since the sense of smell plays a big role in how food tastes, perhaps these words influence the way that Chewy Chips Ahoy! taste. If so, would grammatical differences between different languages cause tasters in other countries to experience different tastes, (or at least to describe these tastes differently) as with experiments in space, time, objects, and substances described in “Linguistic Relativity?” I would be very interested in seeing the results of that experiment.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Cooking Words
What I found interesting about this week’s reading was the large amount of ambiguity and overlap that exists amongst cooking words, not just in English but in many, if not all, languages. Claude Levi-Strauss suggests that some reasons for this are situational: the French used to serve boiled meat for everyday meals, and roasted meat for guests. While this is no longer true in all cases, perhaps the remaining ambiguity today can be explained by tradition, but also by a want of sophistication.
Take the words “braised” and “steamed” for example. Both processes involve a closed pot with moisture (braised also uses fat), and braised carrots are not all that different from steamed ones. Yet steamed carrots evoke those mushy, slimy, flavorless morsels from childhood, while braised ones seem succulent in comparison, imagined as a side dish that would accompany a meal for adults, perhaps one at an expensive restaurant.
“Roast” and “bake,” two words that are much more similar than “braised” and “steamed” can also be separated by a sense of sophistication. Roasted potatoes sound as though they are bursting with flavor because of the ingredients they are roasted with (such as rosemary), while baked potatoes, although delicious, sound dried-out and require several condiments to prove their potential. Roasted potatoes might accompany meat marinated in a flavorful marinade, while baked potatoes are the side dish-of-choice at informal barbeques. At a restaurant, I would be much more inclined to order a dish with roasted potatoes than baked potatoes, and the same would be true if I was preparing a meal for other people.
Differences in similar cooking words also relate to the “extras” required in food preparation, such as sauces, pots, or spoons, as well as cultural uses of the words.
“Grilled” meat is cooked on a “barbeque,” “barbeque grill,” (or sometimes just a “grill”), but “barbeque” pork is not always the same as “grilled” pork. Grilled pork could be prepared with as little as a grill and some salt and pepper. Barbequed pork, however, requires special techniques—rubbing the meat with spices, grilling or slow-cooking it, and finally dousing it with barbeque sauce. While grilling is something that is common all over the US, barbeque is most popular in the South.
Potstickers simply cannot be braised, but must be steamed or fried. Chicken cannot be baked on a spit, but it can be roasted; baked chicken requires an oven. (However, aside from using a spit or an oven, the modern differences between roasting and baking are difficult to define because today, foods can be roasted or baked in an oven.)
Perhaps the ambiguity also lies in Adrienne Lehrer’s assertion that English has many cooking words. We could use the word “bake” for almost all cooking done in an oven, but using “roasted” instead adds variety. We could add barbeque sauce and spices to grilled pork, but “barbequed pork” sounds more interesting. If none of these words existed, we might be limited to the Levi-Strauss’s raw-cooked-rotted triangle, and their subcategories boiled, roasted, and smoked. By using many different cooking words to describe different methods and devices used in the preparation process, we are able to add specificity and, if desired, sophistication and creativity.
Take the words “braised” and “steamed” for example. Both processes involve a closed pot with moisture (braised also uses fat), and braised carrots are not all that different from steamed ones. Yet steamed carrots evoke those mushy, slimy, flavorless morsels from childhood, while braised ones seem succulent in comparison, imagined as a side dish that would accompany a meal for adults, perhaps one at an expensive restaurant.
“Roast” and “bake,” two words that are much more similar than “braised” and “steamed” can also be separated by a sense of sophistication. Roasted potatoes sound as though they are bursting with flavor because of the ingredients they are roasted with (such as rosemary), while baked potatoes, although delicious, sound dried-out and require several condiments to prove their potential. Roasted potatoes might accompany meat marinated in a flavorful marinade, while baked potatoes are the side dish-of-choice at informal barbeques. At a restaurant, I would be much more inclined to order a dish with roasted potatoes than baked potatoes, and the same would be true if I was preparing a meal for other people.
Differences in similar cooking words also relate to the “extras” required in food preparation, such as sauces, pots, or spoons, as well as cultural uses of the words.
“Grilled” meat is cooked on a “barbeque,” “barbeque grill,” (or sometimes just a “grill”), but “barbeque” pork is not always the same as “grilled” pork. Grilled pork could be prepared with as little as a grill and some salt and pepper. Barbequed pork, however, requires special techniques—rubbing the meat with spices, grilling or slow-cooking it, and finally dousing it with barbeque sauce. While grilling is something that is common all over the US, barbeque is most popular in the South.
Potstickers simply cannot be braised, but must be steamed or fried. Chicken cannot be baked on a spit, but it can be roasted; baked chicken requires an oven. (However, aside from using a spit or an oven, the modern differences between roasting and baking are difficult to define because today, foods can be roasted or baked in an oven.)
Perhaps the ambiguity also lies in Adrienne Lehrer’s assertion that English has many cooking words. We could use the word “bake” for almost all cooking done in an oven, but using “roasted” instead adds variety. We could add barbeque sauce and spices to grilled pork, but “barbequed pork” sounds more interesting. If none of these words existed, we might be limited to the Levi-Strauss’s raw-cooked-rotted triangle, and their subcategories boiled, roasted, and smoked. By using many different cooking words to describe different methods and devices used in the preparation process, we are able to add specificity and, if desired, sophistication and creativity.
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