Ēdienkaršu valoda: ko un kā tās mums stāsta
The language of menus: what do they tell us and how do they do it

Summary/Abstract: Even though menus are a widespread type of text which plays an important role in shaping the identity of a catering company, the linguistic research carried out in the field of menus is scarce. Specialists of the catering industry quite often talk about the importance of menus and their role in the success of a business and emphasize that the job of creating menus should not be entrusted to amateurs. In the literature of hospitality industry, menus are not ignored, but instead are viewed from a marketing perspective, not a linguistic viewpoint. The arrival of international cuisine in Latvia raises the issue of product names in Latvian; since a well-written menu is a calling card for a catering company that can positively influence visitors’ perceptions. Many researchers point out that menus can be used as a successful tool in highlighting those menu items the catering company wants to sell the most. Tools like creative food names, use of adjectives and associations with childhood, for example, and introduction of foreign vocabulary can be used to achieve this goal. The aim of the study is to look at the content of the menus. The paper examines the usage of nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. The collected material consists of 50 menus in Latvian. The collected material was culled from catering companies’ publicly available websites or social media sites, and collected during the time frame of November 2018 to January 2019. The collected material represents catering companies from several cities of Latvia, for example, Riga, Kuldīga, Liepāja, Daugavpils, Sigulda, etc.

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