The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu

The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu cover

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Author: Dan Jurafsky

Pages: 272

Size: 2.467,45 Kb

Publication Date: September 15,2014

Category: Essays



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2015 James Beard Award Nominee: Composing and Literature category

Stanford University linguist and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky dives in to the hidden background of food. A amazing history of cooking exchange―a sharing of suggestions and culture just as much as substances and flavors―lies underneath the surface area of our daily snack foods, soups, and suppers.

30 illustrations Is it possible to figure out how very much your dinner will definitely cost by counting what on the menu?

In The Language of Meals, Stanford University professor and MacArthur Fellow Dan Jurafsky peels aside the mysteries from the foods we believe we realize. With Jurafsky’s insight, phrases like ketchup, macaron, and actually salad become living fossils which contain the patterns of early global exploration that predate our contemporary fusion-filled globe.

Jurafsky highlights the subtle meanings concealed in filler phrases like “wealthy” and “crispy,” zeroes in on the metaphors and storytelling tropes we depend on in restaurant evaluations, and charts a microuniverse of advertising language on the trunk of a handbag of poker chips.

The fascinating trip through The Vocabulary of Meals uncovers a worldwide atlas of cooking influences. Thirteen chapters evoke the pleasure and discovery of reading a menu dotted with the sharp-eyed annotations of a linguist.

From historic quality recipes preserved in Sumerian music lyrics to colonial shipping and delivery routes that first linked East and West, Jurafsky paints a captivating portrait of how our foods created.

Why do we consume toast for breakfast, and toast to good wellness at supper?

Engaging and educated, Jurafsky’s unique research illuminates a fantastic network of language, background, and meals. The menu is certainly yours to take pleasure from. What will the turkey we consume on Thanksgiving want to do with the united states on the eastern Mediterranean?


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