Food, Language, and Society: Communication in Japanese Foodways

Food, Language, and Society: Communication in Japanese Foodways examines the language of food in Japanese through the lens of cognitive science and cultural studies to explore intriguing ways in which language, food, and culture interact in the fabric of Japanese society. The questions of how, where, and by whom food and food experiences are described provide abundant opportunities for investigating relationships between language and culture from multi-disciplinary perspectives. Linguistic analysis of the language of food enables us to understand cognitive information that motivates and influences people’s rhetorical choices on foodways. Detailed discussions reveal that loanwords, mimetics, cooking terms, and metaphors serve as lynchpins to enrich the expressive power of the language of food. Food discourse situated in broader social and cultural contexts also reflect social norms and cultural practices deeply embedded within and beyond our gustatory and culinary life. Food narratives as in cookbooks and advertisements are an informative means for virtual interpersonal communication where individual and group identity is indexed, providing a platform for reexamination of gender and other social norms as response to changes in society. Examined from the interaction of linguistic and sociocultural perspectives, Food, Language, and Society illuminates the form, use, and social meaning of the language of food.

Natsuko Tsujimura is professor emerita in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and adjunct professor emerita in the Department of Linguistics at Indiana University Bloomington.