SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
HG8007 DELECTABLE TONGUES: LANGUAGE AND FOOD
FINAL PROJECT – FOOD IDIOMS
CHAN WAN TING LOVYNN
U1340580J
I. Introduction
An idiom is a group of words that have a meaning that is not deduced from the groups of words literally. Thus, unlike the meaning of sentences, the meaning of idioms cannot be deduced by the morpho-syntactic rules of language. It was once hypothesised that the meaning of idioms are arbitrary just like how the meaning of words are arbitrary and in order to make sense of idioms, the meaning of idioms have to be first subconsciously incorporated into memory. However, in recent years, it has been debated that the meaning of some idioms can actually be derived from the meaning of words that from up the idiom. Currently, there are 3 broad classes of idioms namely the “normally decomposable” idioms, the
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This food idiom originates from the early 20th century in ancient Greece. It was believed that the Greeks used black and white beans for their voting system. The white beans represented positive votes while the black beans represented negative votes. The votes were supposed to be unanimous and if the collector of the votes accidentally “spill the beans” and reveal that not all the votes are positive the voting had to be stopped. This idiom has then been passed down with the meaning of divulging a secret. An example of how this food idiom can be used is as follows: We were supposed to give Janet a surprise for her birthday but her boyfriend spilled the beans.
III. Conclusion
It is interesting how people of various parts of the world are able to use food to describe something or someone metaphorically. Although most of the food idioms arise with some relation to food or the action of eating, most of the food idioms in present days have meanings that evolve to have not relativity to food or
Michael Pollan makes arguments concerning the eating habits of the average American. Pollan suggests, in spite of our cultural norms, we should simply “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”
Food—it is that precious substance our bodies need to survive. Whether it brings feelings of nostalgia and comfort, or unites families together, we can all agree that food is a vital source of nourishment. However, our definition of food has changed drastically with the advent of modern technology, which has given rise countless food trends. The desire for the cheap mass-production of food has induced an unspoken transition from slow cooked chicken and steamed veggies to frozen tv-dinners disguised to look like actual food worthy of consumption. Hence, food trends and technology effects the way we produce, purchase, and consume food in the United States.
As previously mentioned, food was traditionally considered as a mere means of subsistence, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. The early history of food involved its use to define shared identities and reflected religious and group customs. Furthermore, food was filled with psychological, cultural, religious, and emotional significance. During this period, a unique court tradition of cuisine and sophisticated table manners emerged to distinguish the social elite from the ordinary people. However, during the 19th century, the history of food slightly changed as it became a defining symbol of national identity. This period was characterized by the association of several dishes to particular countries and cultures (Mintz, par 1). For instance, American hamburger and tomato-based Italian spaghetti are cultural foods that were in...
Nutritionism and Today’s Diet Nutritionism is the ideology that the nutritional value of a food is the sum of all its individual nutrients, vitamins, and other components. In the book, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, he critiques scientists and government recommendations about their nutritional advice. Pollan presents a strong case pointing out the many flaws and problems that have risen over the years of following scientific studies and government related warnings on the proper amount of nutrients needed for a healthy diet. Pollan’s main point is introducing science into our food system has had more of a negative impact than a positive one, we should go back to eating more of a traditional diet. I believe food science has given us
In her book Semiotics and Communication: Signs, Codes, Cultures, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz describes the wide use of food as signs, and also as social codes. The reason foods are so useful as signs and social codes is because they are separable, easily adaptive to new environments, and it is not difficult to cook, or eat for that matter. Food is a major part of our daily lives, Not only for survival, but it plays a substantial social role in our lives. We will look deeper into the semiotics of food, how food is used as identity markers, and also the role that foods play in social change in our lives. First let us start with the semiotics of food.
America is a capitalist society. It should come to a surprise when we live like this daily. We work for profit. We’ll buy either for pleasure or to sell later for profit. It should come to no surprise that our food is made the same way because we are what we eat. We are capitalist that eat a capitalist meal. So we must question our politics. Is our government system to blame for accepting and encouraging monopolies?
America has struggled balancing out what it’s considered to be healthy. Children look at skinny as the definition of healthy and do not realize that not every “fat” person is unhealthy and not every skinny person is healthy. It’s not to be skinny but to live a healthier lifestyle. Children consume food from their schools and homes almost every day, so what they eat is not in their control necessarily. Parents and schools lack knowledge on what they feed their children, and because they lack knowledge it causes children to become overweight or obese.
The word “idiom” is used to describe these forms of speech. Idioms are considered to be part of a nation’s culture, and idioms can make learning a foreign language quite challenging. Scholars have estimated American English to contain at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions. People learning a new language must memorize the meanings of these phrases like vocabulary, because the interpretations of idioms can be unclear.
"The Meanings and Origins of Sayings and Phrases." RSS. Gary Martin, 1996. Web. 21 May 2014.
Food is a major part of everyone’s everyday life. It’s hard to imagine life without the chocolate cake on your fingers or a carne asada taco in your mouth. Enjoying delicious desserts and fast food seem extremely magnificent to eat and spend money buying them. Although, there have been many controversies in the United States on how it’s the largest country with the most obesity regarding children, which affects their health, many people are still going throughout their day snacking. Many people in America are having full course meals with thousands of calories in one sitting not knowing the short term or long term side effects that are going to take a huge toll on their lives. Food is delicious, but it comes with a secret behind the savoriness/sweetness.
American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot
Trends have a way of shaping a culture. They tell people how to act and what is popular at the time. There are many trends some are clothing, music, movies, and excuse. One trend I think is the most fascinating is food trends. Food is a very important part of everyone’s life. The American diet has changed a lot since the 50ths. Back then people use to eat a very limited diet and they would eat the same foods day in and day out. Now a days people have a very wide diet. People now eat foods from different cultures. Food trends seem to be changing very often.
In discussions of the obesity epidemic, one controversial issue has been increasing regulations on junk food. On the one hand, supporters of the idea argue that it is the U.S. government 's responsibility to protect its citizens from diseases like obesity, and that extra regulations would do just that. On the other hand, detractors contend that more government regulations would limit consumer choice and infringe on human rights. Others even maintain that junk food should be illegal. My own view is that fast food corporations are mostly responsible for the obesity epidemic and should be further regulated.
The further type of idioms are irreversible binomial idioms. All in all, every idiom on the sememic stratum and on the lexemic stratum can be, in addition, determined as irreversible sequence.
Collected and dumped not eaten foods that means remains of a hot meal after the meal is over, and everyone has finished eating is called leftover food. West materials and food scraps also conceder as leftover food(Cho et al., 2004a). The ultimate fate of leftovers depends on where the meal was eaten, the preferences of the diner, and the prevailing social culture.