Cognitive and pragmatic aspects of food representation in the British and Russian media discourses

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Самарский национальный исследовательский университет имени академика С.П. Королева

Cognitive and pragmatic aspects of food representation in the British and Russian media discourses

Шевченко Вячеслав Дмитриевич -- доктор филологических наук, доцент, зав. кафедрой английской филологии

Российская Федерация, г. Самара

Аннотация

Настоящая статья посвящена проблеме репрезентации еды в британском и российском медиадискурсах. Автор проводит анализ социальных и лингвистических факторов репрезентации еды в медиа-дискурсе, в особенности идей и социальных аспектов, оказывающих влияние на журналистов, а также языковых форм. Особое внимание уделяется когнитивным аспектам: автор анализирует процесс реализации специфической когнитивной модели в рамках медиа-текста. Помимо этого, исследуются компоненты когнитивной модели, выдвигаемые на первый план в публицистических статьях, а также языковые средства, используемые с этой целью.

В статье также рассматривается связь между реализацией когнитивной модели и прагматической установкой журналиста. Автор приходит к выводу, что новая когнитивная модель формируется и фиксируется в сознании реципиента, поскольку компоненты модели содержат информацию, которая подтверждается данными в медиатексте. Мы полагаем, что введение и фиксация новой когнитивной модели в сознании реципиента приводят к изменению его отношения к британской кухне. Данный процесс может рассматриваться как изменение социальной реальности, а именно: создание новой социальной реальности, поскольку реципиент в этом случае приобретает новую характеристику -- прежде не существовавшее отношение к британской кухне, оказывающее влияние на его действия в реальной действительности.

Автор приходит к выводу, что на процесс репрезентации еды в британском медиа-дискурсе оказывает влияние цель, состоящая в осознании и демонстрации новой, отличной от прежней, идентичности британской нации. Автор также анализирует процесс создания новой когнитивной модели в российском медиа-дискурсе; данная модель связана с оценкой текущих рыночных тенденций, а также социальноэкономической ситуации в России.

Ключевые слова: дискурсивные исследования, медиа-дискурс, репрезентация еды, когнитивная модель, идентичность.

Abstract

COGNITIVE AND PRAGMATIC ASPECTS OF FOOD REPRESENTATION IN THE BRITISH AND RUSSIAN MEDIA DISCOURSES

Shevchenko Viacheslav Dmitrievich -- Doctor of Philology, assistant professor, head of the English department, Samara National Research University, Samara, Russian Federation

The present article is devoted to the problem of representing food in the British and Russian media discourses. The author analyzes social and linguistic factors of food representation in the media discourse, in particular, the ideas and social factors that influence the journalists as well as peculiarities of the linguistic forms of food representation. Particular attention is paid to the cognitive aspects: the author analyzes realization of a specific cognitive model within the media text. The author also studies the cognitive model components, which are foregrounded in the media texts, and the linguistic means used for this purpose. The reasons for this process are also investigated.

The connection between cognitive model realization and the journalist's pragmatic goal is also studied in the paper. The author comes to a conclusion that a new cognitive model is formed and fixed in the recipient's mind, because its components contain information confirmed by data in the media text. The new model can be fixed only if a journalist manages to persuade the recipient using the factual data. We suppose that introduction and placement of a new cognitive model into the recipient's mind results in changing his/her attitude towards British food. This can be viewed as a change in social reality, i.e. construction of new social reality, because the recipient in this case acquires a new feature -- new attitude towards British food that affects his/her actions in real life. The author comes to a conclusion that the process of food representation in the British media discourse is determined by the aim of constructing a specific identity of the British nation, which differs from the identity that has existed before. The author also analyzes the process of constructing a new cognitive model within the Russian media discourse; this model is aimed at assessing the current market trends and economic and social situation in Russia.

Key words: discourse studies, media discourse, food representation, cognitive model, identity.

Introduction

According to S. Toma^kova, one of the frequently appearing narrative content categories of media in the last decade has been food. In her paper she focuses on the media narratives and argues that «food appears in various narrative forms: documentaries about the history and present- day food and drink elements and ingredients; we find references to food in news programmes; there are cooking narratives on morning television; reality game shows focus on food; food and cooking reality shows present chefs, celebrities or ordinary people performing their favourite recipes; breaks within and between individual programmes include countless commercials for healthy and/or tasty eating and drinking» [Toma^kova 2012, p. 102].We suppose that food as a significant aspect of people's biological, social, cultural, business and other spheres determines the topics discussed in the media discourse. The journalists offer their views on the topic of food and food-related activities influenced by the present-day circumstances and situations. Quite often the media materials are aimed at changing individual behavior or state of things referring to food. In the analytical media texts published on The Guardian website food is represented as one of the staples of leisure, entertainment, tourism etc. The journalists focus on positive aspects of consuming food in the British society. Food is not viewed as something that should be changed: the journalists assess the characteristics of food and view it as an instrument, which can be used in performing activities in various spheres.

Methods

While undertaking the research we applied the method of discourse analysis [Chernyavskaya 2017, p. 135-- 148], method of cognitive modelling [Evseeva, Kreidlin 2017, p. 5-23], method of semantic analysis, observation and description techniques.

Scholarly papers review

The problem of food representation has attracted attention of many scholars. Specific representation of food influences the attitude to food and food practices in the society that leads to emergence of new ideas and practices. The food has also been the object of numerous sociological, cultural, ethnographic, linguistic and philosophical studies [Olyanich 2015, p. 157-160; Tolstaya 2016, p. 22-36; Barthes 2017, p. 23-30; Fischler 1988, p. 275-293], which corresponds to the tendency of investigating various aspects of human being existence [Alpatov 2015, p. 7-21; 2, p. 5-19; Sidorov 2016, p. 172-184; Tubalova 2016, p. 68-82].

Results and discussion

One of the spheres, the activities in which are necessarily accompanied by food, is tourism. An article by David Mitchell “We should take pride in Britain's acceptable food” concerns the issue of assessing British food by the foreigners: A phrase really jumped out at me from a newspaper last week. The Times said a recent survey into Spanish attitudes to Britain, conducted by the tourism agency Visit Britain, “found that only 12 % of Spaniards considered the UK to be the best place for food and drink ”. That, I thought to myself, may be the most extraordinary use of the word “only” I have ever seen. Has its meaning recently flipped? Has it been warped by an internet hashtag or ironic usage by rappers? Is it like how “bad” or “wicked” can mean good, and actors receiving awards use the word “humbled” to mean “incredibly impressed with myself”? Because, if “only” still means what I think it means, the paper is implying it expected more than 12 % of the people of Spain to think Britain was “the best place for food and drink”. That's quite a slur on the Spanish. How delusional did it expect them to be? What percentage of them would it expect to think the world was flat? I know we 're moving into a post-truth age, but 12 % of a culinarily renowned nation considering Britain, the land of the Pot Noodle and the garage sandwich, to be the world's No 1 destination for food and drink is already a worrying enough finding for the Spanish education system to address. It would be vindictive to hope for more [theguardian.com].

On the one hand, the journalist admits that British food is not perfect, but, on the other hand, the goal of the journalist is to persuade the reader that the British food has changed over the last few years. In order to change the views on the British food that exist in the world today the journalist aims at representing food in a positive aspect, realizing a “BRITISH FOOD AS A SOURCE OF NATIONAL PRIDE” cognitive model, which is reflected in the article title (see Table 1).

Table 1“BRITISH FOOD AS A SOURCE OF NATIONAL PRIDE” cognitive model

We consider these components to be dominant within the framework of the cognitive model realized in the media text, because the objects and people they refer to play a crucial part in changing international attitude towards the British food.

The PARTICIPANTS component is foregrounded by the language means signifying foreign tourists, TV hosts, chefs and the British Officials. These language units make this component dominant as the foreign tourists are the primary participants assessing the British cuisine; TV hosts play an important role in informing the public of food and cooking peculiarities; British officials and ordinary people may deal with the foreigners and the actions, which may improve British food and cuisine, depend on them.

The CHARACTERISTICS component is foregrounded by the language means with an evaluative connotative meaning; negative assessment affects the recipient's mind and makes

The journalist's pragmatic goal is to change the international attitude to the British food, to present Britain as an interesting and attractive country and to represent food as one of Britain's sources of pride: We have an interesting country, an interesting past and we 're an interesting people: no nastier than most and hard to ignore. And, for better or worse, what we are, what we have, and whatever it is that our culture represents, comes from centuries of working through lunch. In order to achieve his goal the journalist him focus on the object of assessment - food. The REASON and CONSEQUENCES components are foregrounded to demonstrate the evolution of food industry in Britain; this is one of the subgoals that complies with the main pragmatic goal of the journalist (see below).

The author explains the relative absence of delicious food in Britain by the fact that it has never been a cultural priority; this feature is a part of their national character and the British have other things to be proud of: As most Spaniards noted in the survey, there are better reasons to go to Britain than the food: the history, the castles, the stately homes, the museums, the countryside, the coastline, the concerts, the theatre, the cities. As for food, they should be proud of food that they have, though the British food has changed over the last few years and its quality is quite high now. The author opposes two states: the present (when the quality of food is high) and the past (when British food was considered to be bad by the foreigners) (see Table 2). underlines the components of the cognitive model. By filling the REASON (FOR IMPROVEMENT) and CONSEQUENCES components with new positive contents the author renews the cognitive model stored in the recipient's mind, which leads to the change of his/her attitude to British food. Changing the cognitive model the journalist introduces changes into social reality (the corresponding aspects undergo changes in real life): in this case the “BRITISH FOOD AS A PROBLEM FOR TOURISTS” model transforms into

Table 2

“BRITISH FOOD AS THE SOURCE OF NATIONAL PRIDE” model; the journalist clearly demonstrates how CHARACTERISTICS (OF THE OBJECT) component (containing negative assessment) influences the REASON (FOR IMPROVEMENT) component, which leads to positive CONSEQUENCES.

The major piece of information that the journalist uses to transform the cognitive model is assessment. This alteration is reflected in the media text: in order to transform the cognitive model the journalist fills CHARACTERISTICS and CONSEQUENCES components with information about assessment: the negative assessment given to the British food by the foreigners becomes positive due to description of the changes that have occurred in the sphere of catering industry in Britain.

Within the framework of the media text the journalist doesn't reveal the ACTIONS component that precedes CONSEQUENCES and includes the particular activities of the authorities and businesses involved in catering industry aimed at raising the standards of food served in Britain. We suppose that it is determined by the fact that the journalist doesn't intend to attract recipient's attention to specifics of the food industry itself; he means to emphasize the idea that food is only a part of rich British culture that the British are proud of and, thus, change the international attitude to the British food. Consequently, particular attention is paid to assessment of CHARACTERISTICS and CONSEQUENCES, but not the ACTIONS. The main aspect which deserves attention of the journalist and the readers in the media text is food as a part of culture, and this aspect is underlined via negative and positive assessments given by the foreigners and the journalist. The new model is formed and gets fixed in the recipient's mind, because its components contain information confirmed by the data in the media text. The new model can be fixed only if a journalist manages to persuade the recipient using the factual data. linguistic cognitive pragmatic

The Russian media discourse displays a somewhat reverse pattern. The Russians have always been proud of their cuisine and due to historical and cultural conditions they are particularly devoted to home-cooked meals. The media text analyzed tells about a project undertaken by the prominent Russian film directors Andrei Konchalovsky and Nikita Mikhalkov, which is aimed at offering inexpensive healthy home-cooked meals: Первые точки сети «русского фастфуда» Никиты Михалкова и Андрея Кончаловского под названием «Едим как дома» откроются до конца 2017 года. Позиционирует она себя как поставщик домашних, недорогих, натуральных блюд. Сначала в Московской и Калужской областях должны появиться две фабрики-кухни. В правительстве Московской области уже пообещали выделить для этого земельные участки и предоставить налоговые льготы. Производство будет обслуживать 41 кафе и 90 кулинарий. Кроме того, организаторы проекта планируют сразу запустить доставку еды [kommersant.ru].

The cognitive model realized in the Russian media discourse contradicts with the model found in the British media discourse: though being proud of Russian cuisine, the journalist argues that the project will not be a success because of the current market trends: Кафе с домашней кухней не будут востребованы, считает руководитель агентства «РестКонсалт» Сергей Миронов. По его словам, сейчас на рынке царят другие тренды: «Кризис достаточно затянулся, и входить в такой ситуации на рынок без хорошей идеи и профессиональной команды абсурдно. Ничего не получится. Наш потребитель старается в ресторане есть как раз то, чего ему не удается попробовать дома. Это никак не сетевой проект, и я не думаю, что он будет сильно востребован. Если сравнивать Россию с европейскими странами, то там значительно больший процент граждан посещает рестораны. У россиян совершенно другой менталитет, они привыкли готовить дома. Кроме того, в любой кризисной ситуации именно объекты общепита страдают первыми из-за оттока посетителей. В Европе сейчас активно развивается сеть столовых и сервисы доставки, как раз потому что люди стали меньше ходить в рестораны» [kommersant.ru].

We have come to a conclusion that the project is given a negative assessment within the Russian media discourse due to the journalist's goal to present a clear picture of the current economic and social situation in Russia. Consequently, the journalist constructs a new cognitive model, in which the project offering samples of Russia's national heritage (the cuisine) is represented negatively, as it doesn't comply with the current markets trends. This cognitive model is not aimed at changing attitude towards Russian food; the journalist tries to pay readers' attention to the current economic and social situation in Russia.

Conclusion

The undertaken research has demonstrated that introduction and placement of a new cognitive model into the recipient's mind results in changing his/her attitude towards British food. This can be viewed as a change in social reality, i.e. construction of new social reality [Searle 1995], because the recipient in this case acquires a new feature - new specific attitude towards British food that affects his/ her actions in real life. This way the journalist tries to construct new cultural identity of the British nation, in which food is represented as a source of national pride. Within the Russian media discourse the journalist constructs a cognitive model, in which Russian traditional home-cooked food is represented positively, but the project aimed at offering this sort of food is assessed negatively due to the current market trends and economic and social situation in Russia.

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