Lexico-semantic features of gastronomic discourse in Julie and Julia

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Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University

Lexico-semantic features of gastronomic discourse in Julie and Julia

Galyna Tsapro

Hanna Lohvynenko



The article is devoted to the study of the gastronomic discourse in the film “Julie and Julia". It is characterized by the time and space categories. The first comprises time needed to fulfill tasks such as to cook, to prepare for events, to write blog entries, as well as the waiting time and time associated with gastronomic habits. The latter includes restaurants, the cooking school, kitchens, houses, Julia's office. Lexico-semantic peculiarities of the gastronomic discourse in the film cover names of dishes (varying from one-word name to collocations including either ingredients or proper names), gastronomic symbols (BUTTER as glutamic pleasure, EGG as personal growth, LOBSTER as professional skills, DUCK as victory), and recipes (interrelation between the recipe and main characters' specific period in life).

Key words: gastronomic discourse, film discourse, gastronomic symbols, Julie and Julia.



Цапро Г.Ю., Логвиненко Г.П.

Лексико-семантичні характеристики дискурсу фільму "Джулі та Джулія”

У статті висвітлено дослідження гастрономічного дискурсу фільму «Джулі та Джулія». Категорія часу розкривається через зображення часу, що витрачається на очікування, приготування їжі, створення персонального блогу, підготовку до проведення подій. Категорія місця включає ресторани, кулінарну школу, кухні героїнь, офіс Джулії. Лексико-семантичні особливості дискурсу фільму розкриваються у назвах страв, гастрономічній термінології, гастрономічних символах, рецептах. Гастрономічному дискурсу фільму притаманна яскраво виражена метафоричність. Так, ключовими метафоричними фігурами фільму є чотири інгредієнти: BUTTER (масло), що символізує захоплення приготуванням їжі, задоволенням від страви; EGG (яйце), що демонструє власні здобутки головної героїні Джулі, її особисті перемоги; LOBSTER (омар), що виступає символом професіоналізму, а процес його приготування символічно зображує процес подолання життєвих і професійних перешкод; DUCK (качка), що репрезентує символ перемоги, досягнення успіху. Кулінарні рецепти є ядром комунікацій у фільмі. Особливостями кулінарних рецептів у кінострічці окрім стандартних структурних елементів є зв'язок з особистим життям обох героїнь, а також репрезентація стереотипів маскулінності та феміннінності, що відтворюють традиційні гендерніуявлення про соціальні ролі чоловіка й жінки у суспільстві. Поліфункціональність гастрономічного дискурсу у фільмі «Джулі та Джулія» дає змогу торкатися різних аспектів життєдіяльності двох головних героїнь, Джулії й Джулі, а саме особистих переживань, тимчасових складнощів, ностальгічного настрою, коли приготування їжі виявляється своєрідним засобом рухатись далі до власних перемог.

Ключові слова: гастрономічний дискурс, дискурс кіно, гастрономічні символи, Джулі та Джулія.



Introduction

National cuisine is an ethnic indicator together with language, clothes, traditions and culture of a particular territory. Food culture is directly related to religious beliefs and the history of the nation. Cultural and religious traditions are reflected in certain dishes which are made exclusively for a holiday or a special event. In this case, the core of food goes far beyond satisfying the physical need. Thus, the process of nutrition and food culture accompany a person during all their life, which in its turn proves to be not only an important cultural issue but also source of gastronomic discourse studies [5, 434-439]. Thus, gastronomic discourse is an integrated part of communication, the study of which may serve scientific interests in linguistics and interrelated sciences as well.

The aim of the article is to determine lexico- semantic features of gastronomic discourse of the movie Julie and Julia.

The object of the article is gastronomic discourse of the movie Julie and Julia.

The subject of the article is lexical-semantic features of gastronomic discourse of the film Julie and Julia.

The material of the article is the discourse of the film Julie and Julia (R. Hastak (2009). Script “Julie and Julia”. Retrieved from https://www.scripts. com/script-pdf/11457).

Methods

Discursive and interpretative analyses have been used for singling out text fragments with gastronomic semantic units; the method of dictionary definitions and method of structural-semantic analysis have enabled further study and create classifications and interpretations of gastronomic lexical-semantic units.

Theoretical background

Gastronomic discourse plays an important role in the cultural fields as well as in linguistics, reflecting glutomatic realities, identities, traditions, history, worldviews of the nation [8]. Gastronomic communication encompasses a considerable number of linguistic signs which form the linguosemiotic system, which in its turn, influences the participants' communication devoted to production, presentation, and consumption of food [10]. Along with the term gastronomic discourse, the following terms are also used: glutonic discourse, culinary and gastronomic discourse, restaurant discourse, culinary linguistics and others [9]. The term gastronomy comes from the Greek stomach and law and refers to the science which studies the connection between culture and food. The term glutonia has three variants of origin interpretation:

1) from Latin, gluttire which means to swallow, to absorb [1; 69];

2) from French, in which the verb gloutonner means greedy to eat, swallow, and the word glouton means non-devourer [3, 26];

3) from English, where gluttony is explained as the bad habit of eating or drinking much more than you need [7].

Gluttons are a certain frame containing culinary recipes, table manners, restaurant menus, which represent certain gastronomic sectors. Thus, gastronomic discourse is a specific type of social communication situation referring to the sphere of food, nutrition, food preparation, food consumption, culinary recipes [2, 447; 4, 193].

Gastronomic discourse in its form and structure includes linguistic and extralinguistic properties reflecting linguistic, ethnic and philosophical issues [6], which have been formed for centuries and reflect the peculiarities of certain national culture taking into consideration not only culinary preferences, but also the economic, political, geographical and other characteristics of each period. It is a system which includes special terminology, phraseology, cliches and other gastronomic linguistic and non-linguistic means. Therefore, socio-cultural and other issues of gluttons are vital for analysis of gastronomic discourse.



Discussion and results

The gastronomic discourse in the movie Julie and Julia is represented by 703 lexical units which have been subdivided into the following categories:

1) lexemes containing a description of the place of cooking (pace and time of food preparation);

2) lexemes describing food and meals;

3) culinary recipes.

The kitchen is the central spatial category in the gastronomic discourse of the film. The kitchen is not only a place for cooking. This is where cooking is taught (cooking at the cooking school, on the television show, Julia's kitchen, the author's kitchen: lexical film julie julia

You can teach in our kitchen (p. 86).

It serves as the communication center of the film, where the characters have talks. Kitchen is also the place where one may be a success not only in cooking but in life as well. The kitchen is seen as a tool:

How am I supposed to cook anything in this kitchen? (p. 41).

The time category of food preparation in the film is presented as the following:

-- Classic meals of the day (breakfast, lunch, dinner):

Find out before dinner on Thursday (p. 7), Morning class ends at 12:30, then I go home and make lunch for Paul, and later in the afternoon, he goes back to the embassy and I go back to school (p. 27).

-- The amount of time it takes to prepare a dish: When will this pie be ready? (p.5).

-- Waiting time at the restaurant, which is represented only by a visual row.

-- Time for tasks:

The Challenge, 365 days, 524 recipes (p. 14); 353 days to go (p. 19); So it's five weeks down, 47 to go, and I feel fantastic (p. 24); I have now completed 65 recipes in 47 days (p. 30); On track with 103 recipes in just over two months (p. 30); So a deadline. I love deadlines. I love the sound they make as they go whooshing past (p.13).

-- Time of Events:

I'm in my third week at Le Cordon Bleu (p. 26), By 7:30 I'm in class in my apron peeling potatoes (p. 26).

-- Blog Posts:

August 24th day 11 (p. 19); day 22 (p. 20).

-- Time associated with gastronomic habits: She's older and probably not used to eating at 10:00 at night (p. 54).

Culinary recipes are a key element of discussion in the film. The purpose of gastronomic discourse is to present a verbal algorithm for cooking. The addressee is an ordinary American who can neither cook nor has their own cook, so the idea to write a cookbook is reflected in the variations of its titles: For the Ervantless American Cook (p. 12); French Cooking for All! (p. 58); French Home Cooking (p. 58). The wide range of home-made recipes is marked by the lexeme Home and For All serves as an offer for every ordinary American to try and cook at home creating home-made dishes. The cookbook was written in 1961, and in the modern world blogging is a version of creating a new cookbook.

The gastronomic discourse features of the recipe texts presented in the film can be grouped into 1) classic recipes from the cookbook used by the main character and 2) recipe interpretations by the main character.

Classic recipes are characterized by the use of neutral lexical units, terms, borrowings. Gastronomic terms are narrowly specialized, unambiguous, stylistically neutral, they have one meaning: 1) names of dishes; 2) ingredients. Recipes in their form represent micro-texts, directive and informative instructions what to do.

Lexico-semantic peculiarities of culinary recipes, presented verbally in the film discourse compile 3 main parts: the name of the dish, gastronomic metaphors, and culinary recipes.

Name of the dish

The introductory part of a recipe is the name of the dish, which is the title. In the film, apart from discussing recipes, names of dishes are used while ordering food in the restaurant and in daily life. The names of the dishes can be grouped as follows:

1. Classic dishes written in English with short dish names (presented in one word: pie (pp. 4, 5); salad (p. 5); chicken (pp. 19, 42, 54, 55, 79); chop (p. 39); stew (pp. 54, 61, 63, 72) and extended food names.

Extended food names can be subdivided into

a) names indicating the dish itself and the ingredients:

Chocolate cream pie (p. 4); Cobb salads (p. 5);

b) names indicating the culinary processing: roast chicken stuffed with chicken livers and cream cheese (p. 42); with half-boned chicken (p. 54); Braised cucumbers (p. 34); poached eggs (p. 22); artichokes with hollandaise sauce (p. 18);

c) names of dishes containing place names: Bavarian cream (p. 45); Fried chicken from Normandy (p. 42);

d) names of dishes indicating the lack of a particular ingredient:

Cobb salads, no bleu cheese; Cobb salads, no beets; Cobb salads, no bacon; Cobb salads, no ^egg^{s (}p. ⁵⁾;

a) combined names:

a veal chop with mushrooms in a bag, the chocolate Bavarian cream (p. 45); raspberry Bavarian cream (p. 62).

2. Names of ingredients are mainly in French and Italian:

boeuf bourguignon, the poulet roti a la normande (p. 42); et creme renversee au caramel (p. 39); cassoulet (p. 46); beurre blanc (p. 48); poularde demi-desossee (p. 54); oeufs mollets (p. 39); Cotelettes de veau en surprise (p. 39).

Proper names in names of dishes contrast not only with dishes but also Julie's success or failures, as well main characters' life and decisions. The author of the book Julia is a kind of challenge for Julie who is trying to go through 524 recipes. Julia is like a phantom, with whom Julie fights, and dishes are a tool for evaluating this struggle through opposition and metaphorical coloring:

But it wasn't just boeuf bourguignon. It was Julia's boeuf bourguignon; So I'll cook my way through the Julia Child cookbook (p. 54).

Julie's determination to achieve the goal is expressed with the phrase my way, despite the obstacles expressed by through and the Julia Child cookbook.

The gastronomic discourse of the film has certain linguocultural specific features, which is presupposed by the story line, writing a book on French cooking for ordinary American housewives. Thus, we are able to observe the interaction between English and French gastronomic discourses, when there is a large number of French lexemes in recipes written in English.

Gastronomic symbolic images

Gastronomic symbolic images are directly related to the process of cooking and eating are of great importance in the film discourse to portray both female characters Julie and Julia, on the one hand, and on the other, to convey Julie's struggle in the kitchen. The key gastronomic symbolic images of the film are LOBSTER, DUCK, EGG and BUTTER. LOBSTER symbolizes the process of becoming a professional, in this case cooking lobster thermidor is coming up, and I'm going to have to murder and dismember a crustacean, I mean, lobster, major bucks (p. 31). The culinary blog gets its symbolic name: Ernie? 53 comments on my lobster blog (p. 36). Lobster preparation is accompanied by statements: that if you put lobsters in the freezer, it sort of numbs them (p. 31). DUCK is a symbol of the winning trophy, the last obstacle to overcome, the final test which must be passed: on top of which, I have to bone a whole duck (p. 42).

BUTTER is the first lexical unit of gastronomic discourse we encounter in the film. This is where the cooking story begins with butter. BUTTER is the most important ingredient, the most delicious product:

Is there anything better than butter? Think it over. Every time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining, and you say, What's in this? The answer is always going to be “butter” (p. 19); The day there is a meteorite heading towards the earth and we have 30 days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter (p. 19);

Here's my final word on the subject; You can never have too much butter (p. 19).

BUTTER, together with metaphorical sweetheart, is a symbol of love: Julia, you are the butter to my bread and the breath to my life (p. 29).

The process of succeeding Julia compares to playing the piano:

You just got to practice, like the piano (p. 11).

This simile suggests that to achieve a high level of skill is real, all that is necessary is practice. Julia plays the piano, she is brilliant at cooking, so the image of the heroine demonstrates the process of cooking and culinary skills equates to the art of playing the piano. Parallels are drawn between kitchen tools and musical instruments describing Julia as a grant chef. Cooking is an art and a chef is an artist.

Love is expressed through the metaphorical comparison with the sweet by the reinforcement and the highest degree of adjective comparison:

You are so sweet, You are the sweetest man (p. 87);

Honey, is something wrong? (p. 75).

Tasting the Moment is a metaphorical parallel between eating pleasure and life:

I just want to savor this moment. The moment when anything is possible (p. 79).

Julie's perception of a product like egg, is a symbolic reflection of the process of gaining recognition. The egg is featured in a large number of idiomatic gastronomic statements. At the beginning of blogging, before the first recipe, Julie says:

Okay, here's a problem. I've never eaten an egg (p. 1).

In the Table 1 the correspondence between the symbolism of interaction with the product and personal development is offered. The following are parallels between Julia's ability to cook an egg and her culinary skill:

But I do know how to boil an egg, when they got married, she could barely boil an egg (p. 34).

Table 1.1 Product symbolism for Julie's personal growth

Steps of Julie's personal growth	Julie's remarks
I never did it.	I've never eaten an egg (p.1).
I did similar, but not this exactly.	I've had eggs in, like, cakes. Never had an egg (p.22).
I tried and I liked it. I'm on the right side.	Yesterday, I poached an egg. It seemed like the perfect thing to do (p. 22).
It seemed easy, but it was a mistake.	I had this notion, God knows why, that poaching eggs would be simple. But I was deeply wrong (p. 22).
I thought it was bad, but it was delicious.	I thought eggs were going to be greasy and slimy, but it tastes like cheese sauce. YUM (p. 23).

The idiomatic phrase we nailed it (p. 23) emphasizes success and denote true triumph, a victory being of great importance, however, has taken considerable effort. The allusion emphasizes the ease with which the heroine Julie can handle when comparing tasks to a small cupcake:

On track with 103 recipes in just over two months. Looks like a cupcake (p. 30).

The description of cooking process and the taste of food is described with metaphorical expressions:

crammed into the kitchen, I've cut the dickens out of my finger (p. 55);

It's been whisked into submission (p. 19);

Until she just couldn't take it anymore, the melted butter was whipped into a frenzy with egg yolks until it died and went to heaven (p. 19);

I woke up dying of stomach cramps; a case of simile boil it until your kitchen smells like a tannery (p. 40).

The taste is described as a drum roll:

as she dips into a casserole, and up her mouth for a taste check like a perfectly timed double beat on the drums (p. 29).

It is symbolically believed it was the food which saved both ladies:

Both of us were lost and both of us were saved by food in some way or other (p. 74).

Gastronomic symbols and metaphors create a specific atmosphere in the film revealing main characters' important steps in life.

The structure of the culinary recipe

The structure of the standard recipe contains three to four main sections:

1) the name of the dish;

2) ingredients;

3) step by step instruction;

4) additional information (historical facts, tips, variations, etc.).

Unlike the book format, the description of the preparation of a dish in the movie is accompanied by brightly colored author's remarks, evaluative judgments, etc. The main character Julia gives her soul and lots of emotions to her recipes along with direct instructions. Julia Child takes the position of a beginner who, together with the audience, tries to present the cooking instructions in a comprehensive way. Julie repeats Julia's experience in her kitchen and writing her blog. Comments function as self-presentation by changing the structure of the culinary recipe text. In personalized recipes the whole process of food preparation from beginning to end present personal search of both Julia and Julie. It gives the recipe traits of individuality, artistry, and emotional coloring, transforming it into an essay form which goes far beyond the scope of an instruction.

In addition to information about tools and technologies, the adapted recipe provides insights into Julie's emotions, values, events, and thoughts:

I had this notion, God knows why, that poaching eggs would be simple (p. 22).

The multifunctionality of gastronomic discourse allows to touch different aspects of the author's life activity: health, personal experiences, nostalgic mood, etc.:

I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when I say nothing I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort (p. 4).

Cooking is a kind of anti-stress remedy after a hard day:

The way that cooking is the way that And get away from what I do all day (p. 10);

A horrible day at work. An old grandma who looked like if she didn't harm a fly called me a pencil-pushing capitalist ass. But then I came home and cooked chicken with cream, mushrooms and port, and it was a total bliss (pp. 19-20).

Copyrighted, adapted recipes represent stereotypes of masculinity and femininity, reproducing traditional perceptions of the social roles of men and, in this case, especially women:

Pearls. The woman is wearing pearls in the kitchen (p. 11);

Man up, kill the damn lobster (p. 31), comparing men and women:

I'm sometimes lost. But I'm way ahead of the others in the class, all of them men, and all of them very unfriendly, until they discovered I was fearless. Something I realized about the same time they did (pp. 26-27).

Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the film also presents a virtual gastronomic discourse, since the main storyline is the main character's blogging: So write a blog about cooking (p. 10). Culinary blogs perform social and integrative functions, bringing participants together into a group of interests:

Blog Z it is. Nobody here but us servantless American cookies (p. 13).

The blog has all the attributes of social media: interactivity, multimedia, accessibility. In virtual communication, participants join meal and lives of others through virtual imagery. The interaction of the blog author and his readers is reflected in the ability to comment on visual and textual content by using the messaging service. Comments are not only a means of expressing the reader, their attitude to the content, but also an encouragement for the writer, her reward:

Is there anyone out there reading me? But I'm sure you are, aren't you? Somebody? Anybody? Ernestine, I have a comment, Are you listening, whoever are you? (p. 24).

The attitude towards cooking by representatives of higher society in the 1940s was negative, according to Julia, her father was shocked by her training in culinary school and understood it as if they did not have enough money in the family:

Incidentally, my father is horrified I'm going to cooking school. Offered to give me extra money to hire a cook (p. 27).

However, Julia's husband enjoys her admiration:

Julia in the front of her stove has the same fascination for me as watching a kettle drummer at the symphony (p. 27). Then with her bare fingers, she snatches a set of cannelloni out of the pot of boiling water, and she cries, “These damn things are as hot as a stiff cock” (p. 30), comparing cooking with symphony.

In 2001, the attitude is similar, the mother of the heroine does not understand her passion for a cooking blog:

Remind me again why you're doing this...

Honey, are you alcoholic? (pp. 20-21).

Even the heroine Julie says she is aware of the riskiness:

Risking her marriage, her job, and her cat's well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment (p. 14).

Both main characters of the film had their passion in cooking in this way combining passion, fearfulness and butter managed to find their own ways to solve life problems and to prove anything is possible.



Conclusions

The gastronomic discourse in the film Julie and Julia is characterized by the time category which includes classic meals and parts of the day, the amount of time it takes to cook a meal, the waiting time, time for completing tasks, events, blog entries, time associated with gastronomic habits; and the category of space which is represented by restaurants, the kitchen, the cooking school, houses, Julia's office.

Another distinguish feature of the gastronomic discourse in the film is lexical units including names of dishes, gastronomic symbols, and recipes. The names of dishes are mostly given in English varying from one-word name to collocations including either ingredients or geographical / proper names. There are four key symbol images in the film discourse: lobster, duck, egg and butter. BUTTER is the first lexical unit to appear in the film gastronomic discourse and it symbolizes glutamic pleasure. EGG is the demonstration of personal growth of the main character, Julie. LOBSTER is a symbol of acquiring cooking professional skills, as well as overcoming life and professional obstacles. DUCK is a symbol of victory, becoming a success, passing the final test.

Culinary recipes are the core of gastronomic discourse in the film, they are characterized by bright coloring of both main characters' supplements, their descriptions of food preparation, evaluative judgments about dishes and products. Some peculiarities of culinary recipes in the film are characterized by interrelation between the recipe and main characters' specific period in life, some stereotypical issues of masculinity and femininity, revealing traditional attitudes towards male and female social roles in society.

Multifunctionality of gastronomic discourse in the film Julie and Julia allows to touch on various aspects of Julia's and Julie's lives such as personal experiences, permanent difficulties, nostalgic mood, when the process of cooking turns out to be the only possible way to go further to reach success.



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