The Language of Food in Japanese : Cognitive Perspectives and Beyond

"Many studies on the language of food examine English or adopt discourse analysis. This volume makes a fresh attempt to analyze Japanese, focusing on non-discursive units. It offers state-of-the-art data-oriented studies, including methods of analysis in line with Cognitive Linguistics. It orchestrates relatable and intriguing topics, from sound-symbolism in rice cracker naming to meanings of aesthetic sake taste terms. The chapters show that the language of food in Japanese is multifaceted: for instance, expressivity is enhanced by ideophones, as sensory words iconically depicting perceptual experiences and as nuanced words flexibly participating in neologization; context-sensitivity is exemplified by words deeply imbued with socio-cultural constructs; creativity is portrayed by imaginative expressions grounded in embodied experience. The volume will be a valuable resource for students and researchers, not only in linguistics but also in neighboring disciplines, who seek deeper insights into how language interacts with food in Japanese or any other language"-- Provided by publisher The Language of Food in Japanese Editorial page Title page Copyright page Table of contents Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction to the volume 1. Background 2. Goal 2.1 The embodied cognition thesis 2.2 Non-single-doctrine based 2.3 Commitment to usage 2.4 Language use in context 2.5 An encyclopaedic view of word meaning 3. Organization of the volume 4. Concluding remarks References Section I. Overview Chapter 1. The language of food in Japanese through a linguistic lens 1. Introduction 2. Linguistic concepts and mechanisms in the language of food 2.1 Sound-symbolism and mimetics 2.2 Morphological regularities and innovations 2.3 Lexicalization and metaphors 2.4 Sociolinguistic context 3. Identity construct and sociocultural perception 4. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Section II. Mimetics and sound-symbolism in food names and food descriptions Chapter 2. Analysis of the use of Japanese mimetics in the eating and imagined eating of rice crackers 1. Introduction 2. Background 2.1 Japanese rice crackers 2.2 Mimetics and Iconicity 2.3 Previous research on food and language 2.4 Hypothesis and goals of the study 3. Experiments 3.1 Preliminary survey: Familiarity with different types of rice crackers 3.2 Experiment 1: Mimetics for actually eating rice crackers 3.3 Experiment 2: Mimetics for imagined rice crackers 3.4 Comparing the results 4. Discussion and conclusion 4.1 Degrees of iconicity 4.2 Implications for linguistics studies 4.3 Suggestions for future studies References Chapter 3. The sound-symbolic effects of consonants on food texture: An experimental study of snack names in Japanese 1. Introduction: Sound-symbolic phenomena in the language of Japanese food 1.1 Background and research focus 1.2 Research history of sound symbolism 1.3 Sound symbolism in snack names 2. Experiment 2.1 Hypotheses tested 2.2 Method 2.3 Results 3. Discussion 3.1 Comparison of the factors influencing the image of hardness of food 3.2 Motivations for sound-symbolic associations 4. Conclusions and implications 4.1 Conclusions 4.2 Implications for further studies Acknowledgements Funding References Chapter 4. Innovative binomial adjectives in Japanese food descriptions and beyond 1. Introduction 2. Previous studies on binomial freezes 3. Mimetic-like properties of IBAs 4. Semantic classification of IBAs 5. IBAs as linguistic freezes 5.1 Irreversibility of IBAs 5.2 Constraints on the element order of IBAs 5.3 Morphological network of IBAs 6. Immediate semantics of IBAs 7. Conclusions Acknowledgements Funding Abbreviations References Appendix. A list of innovative binomial adjectives in Japanese Section III. Change in the language of food Chapter 5. Verbs of eating: From active zones, cultures, metonymy, and metaphor to withdrawal 1. Introduction 2. Active zones 3. Cultures 4. Verbs of eating 4.1 Kuu 4.2 Tabu 4.3 Taberu 4.4 Summary 5. Kuu’s withdrawal 6. Conclusion Abbreviations References Chapter 6. Naturalization of the Japanese loanword sushi in English: A cognitive account 1. Introduction 2. Naturalization process 2.1 Doi’s (2014) scale 2.2 Sushi in OED, the definition of “naturalization,” and the problems of Doi’s (2014) scale 3. The sequence of criteria on Doi’s scale 3.1 Semantics 3.2 Morphology 4. Token frequency 5. Sushi in constructions 5.1 Sushi in snowclones 5.2 Sushi in Internet memes 6. Expansion of a nomenclatural network 6.1 Background 6.2 On California roll 6.3 Frame-shifting 7. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Section IV. Taste terms Chapter 7. Clear is sweet: Defining aesthetic sake taste terms with a usage-based approach 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical background 2.1 Sense-making theory and epistemological background: How is taste an event constructed in the mouth? 2.2 Usage-based approach 2.3 The terms under investigation: Aesthetic terms 3. Method 3.1 Corpus and text coding (mining) tool 3.2 How to define adjectives and adjectival nouns 4. Results 4.1 Adjectives 4.2 Adjectival nouns 4.3 Summary 5. Discussion 5.1 Clear is sweet 5.2 On Lehrer’s approach to lexical relationships 6. Conclusion Funding References Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Chapter 8. A frame-semantic approach to Japanese taste terms 1. Introduction 2. Data 3. Framework: What does it mean to take a frame-semantic approach? 3.1 Two types of frame: Cognitive and linguistic 3.2 Components of frames 3.3 Words-frames-meanings relation and frame-to-frame relation 4. Analysis 4.1 A frame for taste terms 4.2 Implicit (un)desirability of taste terms 4.3 Preservation of (un)desirability in figurative usages 4.4 A case of semantic pejoration 4.5 A case of melioration 5. Figurative usage of taste terms and patterns of semantic extension: Listing the frames for the figurative meanings of Japanese taste adjectives 5.1 Oishī ‘delicious’ 5.2 Amai ‘sweet’ 5.3 Shibui ‘astringent’ 5.4 Suppai ‘sour’, nigai ‘bitter’ and shoppai ‘salty’ 6. The pattern of semantic extension and conceptual metaphor 6.1 Simplified summary of the patterns of semantic extension 6.2 Conceptual metaphors of Japanese taste terms 7. Conclusion Acknowledgements References Appendix. Frame definitions (alphabetical order) Accuracy Aesthetic Color_qualities Desirability Difficulty Emotion_directed Luck Mental_property Position_on_a_scale Section V. Motion and force in the language of food Chapter 9. Verbs of seasoning in Japanese, with special reference to the locative alternation in English 1. Introduction 2. Cooking and grammar 2.1 Why study culinary expressions? 2.2 Previous studies on culinary expressions 3. Data 4. Verbs of seasoning 4.1 Verbs expressing addition, coating, rubbing, and mixing 4.2 Suru 4.3 Verbs for arranging and attaching 5. Constructions 5.1 Japanese verbs of seasoning and their English counterparts 5.2 From the viewpoint of fashions of speaking 6. Conclusion References Chapter 10. Motion expressions in Japanese wine-tasting descriptions 1. Introduction 2. Review of literature 2.1 Studies of wine-tasting notes 2.2 Motion expressions in wine-tasting notes 3. Method 3.1 Japanese data on wine-tasting notes 3.2 Target forms for investigation 4. Results and discussion 4.1 Verb types and usage ratio 4.2 Usage of motion verbs 4.3 Semantic arguments of verbs 4.4 Specific feature of motion expressions in Japanese: Deixis 5. Conclusion References Chapter 11. Applying force dynamics to analyze taste descriptions in Japanese online columns 1. Introduction 2. Force dynamic patterns in food descriptions 3. Data and methodology 3.1 Data 3.2 Methodology 4. Results 4.1 Overview 4.2 Food-on-food patterns: Food as an agonist 4.3 Food-on-Taster: Taster as an agonist 5. Discussion 5.1 Response to Question 1 5.2 Response to Question 2 6. Conclusion Acknowledgments References Index Many studies on the language of food examine English or adopt discourse analysis. This volume makes a fresh attempt to analyze Japanese, focusing on non-discursive units. It offers state-of-the-art data-oriented studies, including methods of analysis in line with Cognitive Linguistics. It orchestrates relatable and intriguing topics, from sound-symbolism in rice cracker naming to meanings of aesthetic sake taste terms. 0The chapters show that the language of food in Japanese is multifaceted: for instance, expressivity is enhanced by ideophones, as sensory words iconically depicting perceptual experiences and as nuanced words flexibly participating in neologization; context-sensitivity is exemplified by words deeply imbued with socio-cultural constructs; creativity is portrayed by imaginative expressions grounded in embodied experience. The volume will be a valuable resource for students and researchers, not only in linguistics but also in neighboring disciplines, who seek deeper insights into how language interacts with food in Japanese or any other language