In this deliciously geeky episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic trace the evolution of recipes as both instructions and stories, discussing how language, food, and emotion are bound together.
- Do recipes really avoid words like “I” and “you”?
- How French are French fries?
- Do most recipes start with a personal story?
- What do recipes from 1864 have in common with today’s?
From ancient cuneiform cookbooks to modern online menus, this episode serves up a sizzling mix of food, language and culture. Christina shares her original linguistic research on personal pro-nouns in cooking recipes, and reveals why recipes are both impersonal and deeply personal in this savory, data-rich episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes. Bon appétit!
Full episode transcript available here:
https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/sections/edling/sciencecommunication/podcast-transcripts.php#Episode16
Full article available to read for free here:
The linguistic functions of personal pronouns in online cooking recipes. By Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer. https://doi.org/10.33675/ANGL/2025/2/10
Mentioned in this episode:
- www.allrecipes.com: online recipe collection
- www.justtherecipe.com: reduces recipes to their essence by removing narrative parts
- Ratatouille. 2007. Pixar film. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/
- Recipes by Yotam Ottolenghi. https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes