Even though talking as well as writing about food, products, and cooking has quite a significant value in our daily life, it has only recently gained greater influence as a field of study within linguistics.
While quite a bit of work has been done about cook books, recipes and their development through time along the lines of text linguistics, in the past years the very interesting and intriguing field of how we perceive and describe taste has increasingly been taken up by cognitive linguists (Magee 2009).
Cooking shows on television, however, have not been taken into consideration. Such programmes have already been popular in radio broadcasting, made it to television in its very beginning in the 1940s, found enthusiastic fans in every generation at least since Julia Child’s The French Chef on WGBH in 1962 and have increased in popularity ever since (Collins 2009). In 1999, a soon to be very important and internationally acclaimed hero of the genre found his way onto the screen in the BBC cooking show The Naked Chef, clearly taking its cue from Child’s show: Jamie Oliver. The style of The Naked Chef was new, young and cool, and later found copies such as the German show Schmeckt nicht, gibt’s nicht (2004) with Tim Mälzer. Oliver is supposed to have brought good taste as well as ease into British kitchens by showing people what was really wanted, namely easy and fast but healthy cooking in a relaxed atmosphere similar to the one put across by the show. As Trevor Clawson states:
[..] fans and detractors alike know that ‘our Jamie’ speaks in the unschooled voice of ordinary British people. If you want to hear words such as ‘pukka’, ‘malarkey’ and ‘luvvly jubbly’ spoken over the preparation of ‘Rosemary Skewered Monkfish’, then Oliver is your man.” (Clawson 2010). This appraisal of the chef highlights Oliver’s influence on his British audience and how much they could relate to him. At the same time it points to very thing non-cooking linguists are interested in, Oliver’s language and the way he talks about the food he prepares on screen.
The goal of a show such as The Naked Chef is to bring across pleasure in cooking and possibly even draw people to their own stove to cook what Oliver has shown them. It is therefore required of the chef on screen to use a language that people can understand and that evokes an appetite for the meals prepared.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Aim and Scope
3. Material and Method
4. Theoretical Background
4.1. Conceptual Metaphors
4.2. Metaphor as Simile
4.3. Synaesthetic Metaphor
4.4. Dual Reference
5. Analysis
5.1. Taste is Looks
5.2. Synaesthetic Onomatopoeia
6. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Topics
The paper aims to investigate how Jamie Oliver utilizes metaphorical expressions to describe the taste of food in his television show "The Naked Chef" (1999–2001) and to explore how these linguistic devices are made accessible to the viewer. By applying cognitive linguistic theories to the show's discourse, the study examines the mechanisms behind taste-related metaphors and their role in characterization and communication.
- Application of conceptual metaphor theory to food-related language.
- Examination of synaesthetic metaphors mapping visual or auditory domains onto taste.
- Analysis of "taste is looks" as a prevalent metaphorical mapping in the show.
- Exploration of synaesthetic onomatopoeia as a tool for linguistic improvisation.
- Discussion of Glucksberg’s dual reference theory in the context of food descriptors.
Excerpt from the Book
5.1.Taste is Looks
Probably the most frequent and most consistent metaphors that Oliver uses during those three seasons are connecting taste and looks. The exact build-up of these metaphors is debatable, as several approaches seem to lend themselves well for explanation.
(18) “[..] lovely kind of acidity, little bit of that sourness, which is beautiful [..]” (01/06: 05”45’)
(19) “[..] it’s going to taste dead gorgeous and handsome [..]” (02/04: 21”28’)
(20) “[..] on your tongue it’s like quite sexy [..]” (02/06: 07”45’)
(21) “[..] let’s have a little taste – blinding [..]” (02/06: 20”12’)
(22) “[..] really nice sort of mild taste which is pretty sexy [..]” (03/05: 14”40’)
The adjectives describing the taste in these examples could be considered basic level character concepts as introduced by myself as an addition to Ungerer and Schmid (2006) above. The basic level made up by these character concepts would then be ‘looks’, and more specifically, ‘good looks’, which again links to the specific concrete concept of ‘good looks’ that we have in our mind. This is highly culturally influenced, of course. Looks are of great importance in our culture, being good looking has great value, good looks make us desirable, etc.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Introduces the linguistic study of cooking shows, specifically the language of Jamie Oliver in "The Naked Chef," and defines the research question regarding his use of metaphorical expressions for taste.
2. Aim and Scope: Outlines the focus on lexical semantics and conceptual metaphors within the show, while acknowledging the limitations of the study regarding pragmatics and generalizability.
3. Material and Method: Describes the methodology, involving the collection of data from all three seasons of the show and the categorization of taste-related metaphors.
4. Theoretical Background: Provides a comprehensive overview of conceptual metaphor theory, the notion of metaphor as simile, synaesthetic metaphors, and the theory of dual reference.
5. Analysis: Applies the discussed theoretical frameworks to the data, specifically focusing on the metaphors "taste is looks" and "synaesthetic onomatopoeia."
6. Conclusion: Summarizes findings, noting that taste is frequently described through other senses and that multiple theoretical approaches, including synaesthetic metaphor and dual reference, offer plausible explanations for these mappings.
Keywords
Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor, The Naked Chef, Jamie Oliver, Taste, Synaesthesia, Synaesthetic Metaphor, Lexical Semantics, Metaphorical Mapping, Onomatopoeia, Dual Reference, Food Language, Visual Metaphors, Linguistic Analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
The paper focuses on the linguistics of food and cooking, specifically analyzing how Jamie Oliver uses metaphorical expressions to describe taste in his TV show, "The Naked Chef."
What are the central themes discussed in the work?
The work centers on cognitive linguistics, exploring conceptual metaphors, synaesthetic mappings between different senses (like taste, sight, and sound), and how language shapes the perception of food.
What is the core research question?
The central question is how Jamie Oliver employs metaphorical expressions to describe the taste of his dishes and how these linguistic metaphors remain understandable and engaging for the television audience.
Which scientific methodology is applied?
The author uses a qualitative analysis approach, examining transcripts from all three seasons of "The Naked Chef," categorizing metaphorical usage, and interpreting the data through established cognitive linguistics frameworks like Lakoff and Johnson's metaphor theory.
What topics are covered in the main section of the paper?
The main section investigates the "taste is looks" metaphorical mapping and the use of "synaesthetic onomatopoeia" (invented words) in later seasons to describe sensory experiences.
Which key terms characterize this study?
Key terms include conceptual metaphor, source/target domain, synaesthetic metaphor, dual reference, mapping scope, and lexical semantics.
How does the author define the "taste is looks" metaphor?
The author suggests that Oliver frequently maps visual concepts (like beauty or handsomeness) onto abstract taste experiences, reflecting cultural values placed on aesthetics.
What is the role of the "synaesthetic onomatopoeia" analyzed in the third season?
These are neologisms like "twing" or "zing" that seem to bridge sound and taste, suggesting that the chef utilized more improvisational language as his on-screen persona developed.
Does the author conclude that one theory is superior?
No, the author concludes that multiple theories—such as metaphor as simile, synaesthetic metaphor, and dual reference—all provide plausible explanations, and it remains a challenge to determine which is cognitively more accurate.
Why is this paper relevant for linguistics?
It bridges the gap between everyday discourse in popular media and cognitive linguistics, demonstrating that even informal cooking show language is highly structured by complex mental metaphors.
- Citation du texte
- Anne Flückiger (Auteur), 2012, The Language of The Naked Chef, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/192760
