LINGUIST 62N
The Language of Food
Winter 2012

COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor
Dan Jurafsky, jurafsky@stanford.edu Margaret Jacks Hall (bld 460) 117, Office Hours: TBA
Course
TuTh 3:15-4:30pm, 126 Margaret Jacks Hall
Description Stanford Introductory Seminar. Preference to freshmen. The relationship between food and language around the globe. The vocabulary of food and prepared dishes, and crosslinguistic similarities and differences, historical origins, forms and meanings, and relationship to cultural and social variables. Social and cognitive issues in food advertising and in the language of menus and their historical development and crosslinguistic differences. The cognitive science of taste and food language. The structure of cuisines viewed as meta-languages with their own vocabularies and grammatical structure.
Required Work
  • Blog: You will need to set up a blog at http://www.blogger.com. Everyone will be posting their weekly homeworks and their final papers to their blogs, so if you already have a blog, set up a separate one for the course.
  • Discussion: This is a seminar and so the most important component is to be in class with something to say!
  • Homeworks: The homework for this class is to post blog entries. Entries must be posted at least weekly, but more often is of course better! Your entries can be inspired by your thoughts on the readings, or could be a study you did on something you found outside of class, perhaps with some data and analysis. In some cases I'll actually give you some topics I'd like you to consider in your blog entries. I expect you to comment at least occasionally on each others homeworks!
  • Required Texbook: Online readings, plus one book: Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
  • Readings: To be read before the class period in which they will be discussed.
  • Final Project: A final paper which can be a research project (on any language-and-food topic), a survey, a proposal for an experiment, and so on. I will suggest some sample project ideas as the course progresses.
  • Determination of final grade:
    • 33%: final project
    • 33%: your blog entries (and your comments on others blogs)
    • 33%: discussions and class participation
Everyone's blogs The list of blogs


SCHEDULE
Wk
Date
HW

Topic and Readings
1
 Jan 10

Course Overview and Food Names

1
 Jan 12
 HW 1

The Language of Menus

Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
2
 Jan 17
HW 2

The Language of Recipes

  • Fisher, M. F. K., 1983. The Anatomy of a Recipe. In With Bold Knife and Fork, p 13-24. Paragon.
  • Waxman, Nach. 2004. Recipes. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food And Drink in America, pages 247-250. Oxford University Press.
Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
Food, Word Meaning, and Wittgenstein
2
 Jan 19

Background On Semantics: What is the difference between a Cup and a Mug?

  • Shaul, David L. and Louanna Furbee. 1998. Language and Culture. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. p 67-73: Semantics
  • Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1945. Philosophical Investigations. Paragraphs #66 and 67
3
 Jan 24
 HW 3

Food and Semantics: The Meaning of Cooking Words (or, What's the difference between roasting and baking?)

Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
Food Language, Psycholinguistics, and Cognitive Science
3
 Jan 26

Perception and Language: Describing Wine

  • Hyman, Erin. 2011. What Wine-Speak Says About Us. SFMOMA Open Space Blog, March 24, 2011.
  • Lehrer, Adrienne. 2008 manuscript. Wine and Conversation: A New Look.
  • Ann Noble's Aroma Wheel (this will be handed out, it's not a reading)

  • Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
    • Lehrer, Adrienne. 1983. Wine and Conversation, pp 3-53. Indiana University Press.
4
 Jan 31
HW 4

Does language influence perception of smell/taste/color?

4
 Feb 2

Sound Symbolism and Food Names

Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
5
 Feb 7

Food and Metaphor: (or, Why does your mom call you 'honey'?)

Food and Sociolinguistics
5
 Feb 9

Food Language, Cultural Capital, and Socio-Economic Class

6
 Feb 14
 HW 5

Food Language, Cultural Capital, and Socio-Economic Class

6
 Feb 16

Dialect, Variation, and Food Vocabulary
Food and Historical Linguistics
7
 Feb 21
Project Idea

Food Words, Etymology, and History

7
 Feb 23
 Writing Day
Food and Anthropological Linguistics
8
 Feb 28

The Grammar of Cuisine

  • Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
    • Rozin, Elisabeth 2005. Flavor Principes: Some Applications p 42-48. The Taste Culture Reader, edited by Carolyn Korsmeyer. Oxford: Berg.
    • Roland Barthes. 1961. Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption. Originally published as "Vers une psycho-sociologie de l'alimentation moderne" in Annales: Economies, Societes, Civilisations 5 September-October, pp. 977-986. This copy from Food and Culture: A Reader, 2nd edition, ed. by Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik. Routledge, 2008, pp 28-35.
    • Douglas, Mary, and Michael Nicod. 1974. Taking the Biscuit: the structure of British meals. New Society 30:744-747.
Food and Phonetics
8
 Mar 1
Project Outline Drunken Speech, the Exxon Valdez case, and Phonetics

  • Extra (advanced papers if you're thinking about a final project in this area):
    • 9
    		 Mar 6

    		Class-Chosen Topic

    9
    		 Mar 8
    		Class-Chosen Topic 2

    Final Project Presentations
    10
    		 Mar 13
    		Dennis
    Katelyn
    Alison
    Jenna
    Mónica
    Sarah E
    10
    		 Mar 15
    		Julia
    Catherine
    Sarah C
    Asia
    Linda and Debra
    Clara
    F
    		 Mar 19
    		Monday: Final paper due at 12 noon