Food in the communicative perspective: linguacultural approach

Abstract

The article makes an attempt to characterise the act of eating as a communicative event and a cultural text: the analysis is based on the model of communication, theory of information and the general theory of signs. The main objective of the analysis is focused on reconstruction of the linguistic and cultural picture of eating in communication. In the description of the data, references are made to selected research methods and tools of linguistic semantics, particularly in its cultural variant. The data under consideration were initially limited to Polish linguaculture but in the course of analysis examples from other cultures were incorporated. While constructing a communicative model of eating, a basic distinction is made between the performer of an action (the eater) and the object of this action (the food). The analysis of the data reveals that apart from the verbally expressed information about who eats, what they eat, and how they do it. Another significant role in coding meaning is played by the accompanying non-verbal communication (eating-related sounds or the eater’s body language), as well as conventional signals replacing verbal formulas (communication through an arrangement of the cutlery, the dish itself or a specific manner of consumption).