Introduction

The group members for this project are Katelyn Lewis, Jordan Keene, Henry Bringenberg, and Jiayi Liu. For our project, we thought it would be fun to analyze two different recipes from two different websites. One recipe is for dashi broth, while the other was for chocolate cake. As the former recipe is one that has traditional Japanese origins, we hypothesized that more native Japanese and Sino-Japanese words would be used to describe how to make the recipe. With chocolate cake being a western recipe, we hypothesized that there would be more loan words used in comparison to the dashi broth recipe.

Methodology

https://www.kurashiru.com/recipes/394c07aa-29d1-44b2-ab88-0befc798b44b

https://recipe.rakuten.co.jp/recipe/1440000561/?l-id=recipe_list_detail_recipe

Right away, you can see the difference from the two sites themselves. Style and language seem to go hand, with consumer behavior being influenced by the promotional image (Seaton, 2001). Thus, while keeping track of the various types of vocabulary and how it varied by adjectives, verbs, and nouns, we paid close attention to aesthetic choices and how that also is targeted towards a different audience. Ultimately this is why we chose the two sites listed.

Materials, Analysis, Discussion

As you can see, the dashi recipe had less loan words, but more Sino-Japanese words than the chocolate cake recipe. This was expected because, as mentioned previously, dashi is a traditional Japanese recipe while chocolate cake is western. While not strictly part of one of the vocabulary types that is mentioned in the textbook, it is interesting to note that the chocolate cake recipe uses emojis such as ♪ and ★ to convey different emotions. The ★ in the title makes me feel particularly excited to learn this recipe and get cooking, which likely was the intended reaction. It is mentioned a few times that this recipe is great for beginners, so the use of emojis and including few Sino-Japanese words (compared to the dashi recipe) is meant to ease someone into the idea of learning how to cook. With that in mind, and because of the overall cutesy design of the site, the recipe is most likely meant to target Japanese women who are teens or young adults, people who may just begun living on their own for their first time. What is interesting is that while the recipe is western in origin, the chocolate cake is meant to be made in a rice cooker as opposed to an oven. This may be because while the author means for this recipe to be made by a younger audience that is more open-minded to western culture and language, it is still a Japanese recipe for Japanese people. 

Here is a breakdown of individual words and what part of speech is used:

A majority of the nouns are foreign loan word, which makes sense because quite a few of the ingredients wouldn’t have been native to Japan, like chocolate. What was surprising was the word “コツ”, written in nonstandard script . Usually when it is written with nothing else following, like in the recipe, it is written with the character 骨. When it is written in katakana, usually “を覚える” follows, as together it means to learn the ropes. 骨 by itself means tip or secret. This can also be seen in the dashi recipe, which may indicate it’s less of a stylistic choice to give the impression of the foreign and more just a shift in how it is written.

 In addition to the foreign loan words, there are also a few instances of English being used in conjunction with Japanese, such as “バター or マーガリン適量”, “無くてもOK”, and “スイッチON！” Seaton says that the use of English can be seen as cool because of its association with American freedom and individuality(238), so the choice to switch between languages may be a way to take advantage of the hermeneutic meaning that English has in order to attract younger people to the recipe. Seaton also talks about how, “Japanized English allows Japanese consumers to employ the same reading strategy they use when reading Japanese, allowing easier access to the intended meaning”(242). While the chocolate cake recipe isn’t necessarily using Japanized English because the English is being used correctly and accurately, the spare use of it makes these few instances very eye-catching and could make the recipe’s instructions easier and quicker to understand.

Regarding the dashi recipe, this one has a much higher proportion of Sino-Japanese words compared to native Japanese (with both types being used almost equally), and significantly fewer foreign loan words. One possible reason for this is that the site the recipe is posted on is designed more like a professional cooking website rather than a casual blog. One could say that it might have a more “refined”, or maybe even an older target audience, even though it is still a beginner-level recipe. Therefore, the writer tended to use Sino-Japanese words more frequently, as this type of vocabulary conveys a stronger sense of sophistication than native Japanese or loan words. Another thing to consider is that the recipe itself is also for traditional Japanese cuisine instead of a dessert “borrowed” from another culture. This is likely part of the reason why there were fewer loan words. It makes sense that instructions for a western-style cake would require some unique terminology beyond the native or Sino-Japanese vocabulary, as we hypothesized. For instance, with the names of many of the recipe’s ingredients, such as ココア (cocoa) and マーガリン (margarine), there simply aren’t any native or Sino-Japanese equivalents. The dashi recipe, on the other hand, primarily only used loan words that were standard cooking terms, such as カロリー (calorie) and リットル (liter), but all the ingredients could be written with native or Sino-Japanese.

This is the breakdown of words from the dashi recipe:

The vast majority of nouns in this recipe are Sino-Japanese. While it’s been noted that the Sino-Japanese in the dashi recipe indicated it is meant for a more “sophisticated” audience, there also seems to be more nuance to this recipe than the chocolate cake recipe. Words like “直前”, “事項”, “安全” indicate that there are things that could easily go wrong if one isn’t paying attention while cooking, while in the chocolate cake recipe the words “炊飯器” and “粉砂糖” don’t indicate anything important, simply that one needs a rice cooker and powdered sugar for this recipe.

Overall, while both recipes are meant for beginners, the dashi broth recipe caters more towards people who want to cook traditional Japanese recipes, and who are cooking more out of necessity,  while the chocolate cake recipe is targeted to more modern audiences who are learning not only because it is an important life skill, but also for fun.