Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

PRACTICAL PART

3. Analysis

As far as the research approach is concerned, since no profound changes have occurred in the form of English recipes, they are analyzed from a synchronic point of view. “Synchronic linguistics sees language as a living whole, existing as a state at a particular point in time” (Warsi 1). Being taken into consideration the fact that the translation of English recipes has evolved and also that it is also likely that the impact of the translation is reflected in the form of Czech recipes, Czech-language texts are researched from a diachronic (historic) point of view. “Diachronic linguistics concerns language in its historical development” (1). Nevertheless, it is important to realize that “neither [of the approaches] excludes the other completely” and that even in the diachronic research “some non-historical analysis is essential as a preliminary” (2). Therefore, primarily, the recipes from each period are examined separately; and, eventually, they are compared and contrasted.

To be more specific, first, the English recipes are dealt with. To obtain the image of their traditional form, several sources covering last four decades – both printed and non-printed – are used. As for the former, various English cookbooks and one magazine are consulted; as for the latter, miscellaneous online periodicals and Internet sites concerning cooking are researched. The characteristic features are scrutinized one by one, except for the form of address which has been scrutinized in Zuzana Havlásková’s work and, thus, her research results are summarized and confronted with the data from my corpus in this thesis.

Next, materials written in the Czech language, including both texts which are Czech originals and texts which are translated versions of their English counterparts from a variety of cookbooks and periodicals are analyzed. These materials are divided into two groups: the first one containing recipes written just after 1989, the other one incorporating recipes written within the last four years. Finally, the outcome of the analysis of the old recipes is compared and contrasted with that one of the recent recipes in order to find out how the translation developed and what impact the translation has had on the form of original Czech recipes in time. One chapter is devoted to the translated recipes and another one to Czech originals. In addition, there is also included the outcome of questionnaires which ware created in order to receive ordinary people‘s opinions of what they prefer.

3.1 English Recipes

3.1.1 Processing Ingredients⁷

The position of the participial adjective depends on the fact whether it has an adjectival (post head) dependent or not. If the participial adjective has one, the modifying adjective phrase becomes heavy and it must be postposed. As a result, the participial adjective stands behind the head noun (ingredient), such as in “2 celery stalks, trimmed and cut crosswise into ½-inch rounds” (Chrystopher and Tobis 102). This use of adjectives is called postpositive. Besides, not only the modifying adjective phrases including the participial adjectives in their structure but also participial adjectives without a dependant can occur in this postmodifying position. In English recipes, these postpositive adjectives are always separated by a comma.

On the other hand, participial adjectives can also have an attributive use; that means that they stand in front of a head noun and premodify it, such as in this exemplary segment “1lb. [of] peeled and sliced tomatoes” (Paradissis 76). In some cases, the head noun can be premodified and, simultaneously, postmodified.

Both above-mentioned versions can be found in the corpus. In fact, this phenomenon is observable in every material included. To be more specific, two out of nine cookbooks present the above-dealt information both by the participial adjectives in the list of ingredients or the directions, and by the verb included in a clause in the directional part.

As for the remaining seven cookbooks, they use this preprocessed form exclusively. What is also worth mentioning is the fact that even the cookbooks with the list of ingredients incorporated in the directions adhere to this trend. To illustrate this, a part of a recipe taken from the book Joy of Cooking is included:

Preheat the oven to 400 F°.

Layer in the order listed in a 13 x 9-inch glass casserole:

2 tomatoes cut into ½-inch slices

1 medium onion, cut into ¼-inch slices

2 tablespoons minced fresh basil leaves or fresh parsley

Sprinkle with:

Salt and ground black pepper to taste. . . . (Rombauer 555)

It is obvious that the information presented in participial adjectives or modifying adjective phrases is perceived as an inherent quality of the particular ingredient because the participial adjectives are not converted back to the verb form in the above-mentioned example even if they are no longer in the separate list of ingredients. This idea is also supported by a pattern presented in some other cookbooks with a traditional two-sectional structure where the quality of a particular ingredient is mentioned only in the list of ingredients. Subsequently, if the ingredient repeats in the directions, it is already without the additional information which is considered to be an internal part of the ingredient.

Concerning periodicals and Internet sites, all of them use this preprocessed information adjoined to ingredients in their listing. Thus, being considered the widespread use of this phenomenon, it can be, in my opinion, marked as traditional in English recipes.

3.1.2 Measurement

3.1.2.1 Units of Volume vs. Units of Weight

This is the case in six out of nine English cookbooks in my corpus. It is illustrated in fragments like “2 cups [of] sliced jack or cheddar cheese” (Katzen 139) and “½ cup [of] butter or margarine” (Patten 189). The above-mentioned units are occasionally accompanied by units of mass – namely pounds (lb) and ounces (oz) – but only when inevitable. On the other hand, no more than three cookbooks describe the amount of solid and powdery ingredients exclusively by units of weight, such as: “140g / 5oz [of] caster sugar” in Jamie’s Kitchen (Oliver 277). Thus, there is a tendency to prefer units of volume to units of weight in descriptions of amount in cookbooks.

As to English periodicals, nine cover this issue. Again, five of them are based mainly on the volume system. In three magazines, volume and weight units are used in turns. In one of them, the latter ones are converted in parentheses, and in two of them, some of the former ones are converted in parentheses. For example Donna Hey uses statements like “1 cup (150g) [of] sliced strawberries” in her magazine. Nevertheless, Fine Cooking and Simple & Delicious do not have a unified form for all the recipes with some recipes including the additional parenthetical information and some of them not. In the last magazine, solid and powdered food is described only with units of weight. Therefore, it is possible to declare that in periodicals there is a tendency towards working with volume system for in eight out of nine cases (in some of them not exclusively) cups, tablespoons and teaspoons are used to express the amount of some powdery and solid ingredients.

Regarding the analyzed Internet sites, both prioritize the units of volume for food in all types of states.

To sum up, English recipes demonstrate a strong trend to use volume units, namely cups and spoons, to instruct the reader about the amount of both liquid and non-liquid ingredients.

3.1.2.2 Measurement Systems

As for the books and units of temperature, three out of four books use the Imperial/American system and the remaining one states the temperature in degrees of Fahrenheit (F°) and also in degrees of Celsius (°C), which means that it expresses the temperature by both systems. In the rest of the materials of this kind, there is either no hint of exact temperature or no recipe dealing with baking in an oven.

Concerning the units of weight, five out of seven books favor pounds and ounces; that is the Anglo-Saxon system. The other two books take advantage of both systems, such as Conte in The Cook’s Book: “Brown in a casserole 1oz (30g) butter, ½ chopped onion and 2 oz (60g) salt pork” (217). The remaining two only employ the units of volume – cups, tablespoons, teaspoons – to express the amount of mass.

Regarding the volume measures, it is rather complicated. Cups and spoons are observable in seven books and, therefore, are the most popular. Units of the Imperial/American system are included in five cookbooks of my corpus and, simultaneously, the units of the metric system supplement them in two of them.

The last topic – units of length – are represented in three books only by inches (in), that is the Imperial/American measure system; and in one book by both inches and centimeters (cm). A table is enclosed below to make the situation more lucid.

Table 1

To sum up, it is clearly visible in the table that the purple color prevails over the yellow one in English cookbooks; to be more specific, the Imperial/American measure system predominates over the European one. What is also obvious from the table is the fact that a particular author wholly adheres to either one measurement system, such as Chrystopher Styler and Scott Tobis, or adapts both, such as Marie-Christine Conte. To put it simply, the systems do not mix in individual categories. Nevertheless, it is necessary to comment in detail on the situation of the volume system and separate it from the general conclusion. It uses the classical Imperial/American measurement system as well as the system of cups and spoon very often, and the metric system is insignificant regarding volume.

Concerning periodicals and temperature, the Imperial/American system is used as the only one in six out of nine magazines, in one magazine, there are both variants, and the remainder works only with degrees of Celsius.

As for units of weight, there are pounds and ounces in six out of nine magazines, again, and the other three imply only weight units of the metric system.

Moreover, units of length are in the completely same situation: six times inches and three times centimeters.

As to the volume, seven magazines solely choose the system of cups and spoons, and the situation of remaining three is more complicated since they combine features of the metric system together with the previously mentioned one. To be more specific, Recipes+ uses tablespoons, teaspoons and cups in recipes and, consequently, there is a table published in the magazine converting them to milliliters. In another magazine – Donna Hey Magazine – cups are converted to grams or milliliters directly in recipes. Last but not least, Delicious. Magazine apparently favors the metric system with kilograms and liters and rejects everything else except for one item which is a spoon (both tablespoon and teaspoon). All ten periodicals totally reject the Anglo-Saxon system. A table is enclosed below to make the situation more lucid.

Usage of Measurement Systems in English Periodicals ^b

To sum up, the color scheme above and information presented in the previous paragraphs show that the Avoirdupois measurement system mostly dominates in periodicals as regards the temperature, weight, and length. However, system of cups is the most often used as far as the volume is concerned.

Concerning English Internet sites, Simply Recipes solely adopts the system of cups and spoons. All Recipes, on the other hand, provides a reader with a choice. Amount of ingredients is primarily shown in Anglo-Saxon units but the converted version appears in one click of a button. This is logical as this (originally American) site has its variants for many other countries and languages. What is highly interesting is the fact that cups and spoons are classified as a part of the American measurement system on this web page.

Pondering about the type of books, periodicals and Internet sites using solely the metric system or the metric system in combination with some other system, it is apparent that these are often materials intended to be distributed in other countries than United States or Great Britain, and possibly also translated into other languages than English. As these materials endeavor to succeed in other countries’ markets, some of them, such as Simply Recipes web site, adapt to the non-English standard.

Also Alena Švomová supports this idea in her thesis “Překlad kuchařských receptů jako specifického typu textu” (13). To illustrate this, a change in Jamie Oliver’s cookbook is worth mentioning. Švomová maintains in her text written in 2006 that Oliver only uses Anglo-Saxon measures (22). This description comes from the period antecedent to his international success. However, nowadays his books contain units of both measurement systems.

To conclude, it is evident that the Imperial/American measurement system prevails in all mentioned types of materials as far as the temperature, weight, and length are concerned; and, thus, it can be considered as traditional. As for the rather complex issue of the volume, the system of cups and spoons is most often used and units such as pints and fluid ounces of the Anglo-Saxon system hold the second position. Nevertheless, some sources comprise even cups and spoons (together with quarts, fluid ounces, bushels and others) in the Anglo-Saxon measurement system¹¹. One of the reasons for this is the fact that there are the exactly defined proportions of both American and Imperial cups. The other one is the fact dealt in the previous section; English cookbooks use cups to measure foodstuffs which are measured by units of weight in other countries; thus, it is a unit rather specific of United States and United Kingdom and also their measurement system. On the other hand, a cup as a measuring unit is used around the world, for example in the Czech Republic the hrníčková kuchařka (cup cookbook) is commonly used. For the purposes of my thesis, cups and spoons are included in the American/Imperial measurement system as far as English recipes are concerned; and therefore, this system is preponderant in all categories and can be considered traditional.

3.1.2.3 Determination of Size

Another interesting fact is that this phenomenon is mainly associated with utensils such as pots, pans and casseroles; but it excludes bowls, which are usually described as small, medium or large, and skillets, which are sometimes characterized as deep.

To support this claim, this phenomenon was observed in six out of seven cookbooks which anyhow specify the size, with three using solely exact definitions of size and three jumbling both precise and vague descriptions of size. The analysis of periodicals ended with a similar outcome. Moreover, the Internet sites show an even more persuasive result: both of them are rather accurate regarding this issue. All these facts being considered, this aspect is typical of English recipes.

3.1.3 Structure of Directions

To make the division more visible, these sections can be numerated or marked in any other way, for instance with bullets and asterisks. Sometimes, a blank line is added between paragraphs. In other cases, all directions are described in one paragraph but a word step together with a number (both in parentheses) are inserted between simple sentences or clauses of a complex sentence, such as in “Cut the hare into serving pieces (step 1) and put them in a bowl together the liver” (Conte 217).

As for the corpus, the structuring feature was observed in seven out of nine cookbooks and nine out of ten periodicals. See the table below for details.

Table 3

Table 4

The recipes of the analyzed Internet sites are structured as well: Simply Recipes uses numbers and All Recipes bullets to differentiate the sections.

All in all, since this feature is very common, it is embraced in the list of standard aspects of English recipes.

3.1.4 Forms of Address

The last issue included is the one dealing with forms of address in English recipes. In her thesis, Havlásková maintains that “English cookery books use invariably ordinary imperative” (23). If the result of her research is compared with the data from my corpus, there is an absolute conformity. All of the explored cookbooks, periodicals, and Internet sites speak to a reader in imperative, such as “Preheat the oven to 375 F°” (Simply Recipes) and “Add bell pepper and ginger; cook 1 minute” (Light Cooking 36). Therefore, it is a typical feature of English recipes.

3.1.5 Summary: Standard Form of English Recipes