Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Dominika Klenová The Language of Cookbooks and Recipes Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D 2010 1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Acknowledgement I would like to thank both my supervisors, namely Mgr. Robert Hanč and Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D, for their guidance, help and valuable advice throughout the process of writing this thesis. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 7 2. Recipe – Definition of the Concept ..................................................................................... 9 3. The Recipe from the Linguistic Point of View ................................................................. 11 3.1. Recipe as a Written Text ............................................................................................... 11 3.2. Hypothesis ..................................................................................................................... 12 4. Approaches Adopted in the Study of Recipes .................................................................. 14 4.1. Sublanguage .................................................................................................................. 14 4.2. Style ............................................................................................................................... 15 4.3. Genre ............................................................................................................................. 16 4.5. Register .......................................................................................................................... 18 4.6. Register and Genre ........................................................................................................ 19 4.7. Register Analysis and Genre Analysis .......................................................................... 20 4.8. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 22 5. Description of the Research and Methodology ................................................................ 23 5.1. Methodology ................................................................................................................. 23 5.2. Data Selection ............................................................................................................... 24 5.3. Description of the Linguistic Analysis .......................................................................... 25 5.5. Research on Registers ................................................................................................... 26 6. Situational Characteristics of Recipes .............................................................................. 27 6.1. Communicative Characteristics of Participants ............................................................ 28 6.2. Relations between Addressor and Addressee ................................................................ 29 6.3. Setting ............................................................................................................................ 30 6.4. Channel .......................................................................................................................... 31 6.5. Relation of Participants to the Text ............................................................................... 32 6.6. Purposes, Intents, and Goals ......................................................................................... 34 6.7. Topic / Subject .............................................................................................................. 35 6.9. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 36 7. Analysis of the Register of Recipes ................................................................................... 37 7. 1. Lexical Level ................................................................................................................ 38 7.1.1. Nouns ..................................................................................................................... 38 7.1.2 Proper Nouns ........................................................................................................... 42 7.1.3. Loan Words ............................................................................................................ 44 7.1.4. Kitchen Utensils and Cookery Equipment ............................................................. 46 7.1.5. Partitives ................................................................................................................. 50 7.1.6. Numbers ................................................................................................................. 53 7.1.7. Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 56 7.1.9. Articles ................................................................................................................... 57 7.1.10. Adjectives ............................................................................................................. 58 7.1.11. Verbs .................................................................................................................... 60 7.1.13. Phrasal Verbs ........................................................................................................ 65 7.1.14. Verb Forms ........................................................................................................... 67 7.1.15. Tense, Aspect, Voice ............................................................................................ 69 7.1.16. The Lexical Density ............................................................................................. 72 7.1.17. Collocations and Fixed Expressions .................................................................... 73 7.1.18. Summary .............................................................................................................. 74 7. 2. The Level of Grammar and Syntax .............................................................................. 75 7.2.1 The Compound Sentence ........................................................................................ 76 7.2.2. The Complex Sentence ........................................................................................... 78 7.2.3. Direct Object Omission .......................................................................................... 84 7.2.4. Ellipsis .................................................................................................................... 88 7.2.5 Compound Nouns .................................................................................................... 92 7.2.5. Summary ................................................................................................................ 93 7.3. The Level of Discourse ................................................................................................. 93 7.3.1. Linguistic Devices of Discourse Organization ....................................................... 94 7.3.1. Non-linguistic Cohesive Devices ........................................................................... 99 7.3.2. Summary .............................................................................................................. 106 8. Formality and Informality in Recipes ............................................................................ 107 8. 1. Contracted Forms ....................................................................................................... 107 8. 2 Expressive Adjectives ................................................................................................. 109 8. 3. Verb Phrases with „give‟, „get‟ and „have‟ ................................................................ 110 8. 4. Phrasal Verbs .............................................................................................................. 111 8.5. Non-explicit Expressions ............................................................................................ 112 8.6. Exclamations ............................................................................................................... 113 8.7. Miscellanea .................................................................................................................. 114 8.8. Proximity of Participants ............................................................................................. 115 8.8.1. Pronouns „you‟ and „your‟ ................................................................................... 115 8.8.2. Personal Pronouns „I‟ ........................................................................................... 119 8.9. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 124 9. Evaluation of the Primary Hypothesis ........................................................................... 126 9.1. Evaluation of Five Criteria of Writtenness .......................................................... 126