From Culinary Images to Cultural Meanings:
A Contrastive Study of Food-Related Phraseological Units in English and Vietnamese
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60087/jklst.vol5.n2.007Abstract
Food-related phraseological units provide valuable insights into the relationship among language, cognition, and culture because they use familiar culinary experiences to express abstract meanings. However, systematic comparisons of English and Vietnamese food-related phraseology remain limited, particularly studies integrating semantic, pragmatic, and cultural dimensions. This study therefore examines similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese food-related phraseological units through a qualitative contrastive approach. The dataset comprised 60 purposively selected, dictionary-based units, including 30 English and 30 Vietnamese expressions. They were classified into three thematic categories: food items, eating and drinking activities, and taste and cooking expressions. The analysis focused on semantic transparency, meaning-construction mechanisms, conventional communicative functions, and cultural connotations. The findings indicate that both datasets rely on metaphorical extension, symbolism, and evaluative meaning to conceptualize behaviour, emotions, interpersonal relationships, hardship, and achievement. Differences were observed primarily in lexical imagery and culturally conventionalized associations. The English units frequently draw on foods associated with British and American dietary traditions, whereas the Vietnamese units more often refer to rice-based meals, agricultural experience, family relations, gratitude, and social harmony. In both languages, the selected units serve functions such as evaluating behaviour, describing life experiences, expressing attitudes, conveying advice, and managing interpersonal relationships. These findings contribute to contrastive phraseology and intercultural communication while offering potential implications for language teaching and translation. As the study is based on a small, purposively selected dataset, the identified patterns should be interpreted as preliminary rather than representative of English and Vietnamese phraseology as a whole.
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