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L'Écoute Du Langage The recipe for success: syntactic features of la chronique gastronomique1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Dulcie M. Engel
Affiliation:
Department of French, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP. d.engel@swansea.ac.uk

Abstract

This paper examines some syntactic features in the discourse of food, and in particular recipes and cookery pieces published in the French press.

It is argued that specific genres often display linguistic features related to the communicative function of the genre. Concentrating on the basic elements of the cooking process, that is, [irreversible process] [application of heat] [object-food] (Newman, 1975: 56), we examine the syntactic structure of NPs and VPs in French cookery writing in the press, which are characterised by complexity. Drawing parallels with the findings of Blanche-Benveniste (1995 a, b), we demonstrate how syntax can reflect function and meaning in a restricted text-type.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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