3 ms·

Give this article to someone, taking out every occurence of 'food grammar'. I'll bet they'll guess the missing words are 'eating habits'. Why invent new words

Give this article to someone, taking out every occurence of 'food grammar'. I'll bet they'll guess the missing words are 'eating habits'. Why invent new words for existing concepts? Most of the times, in my experience, it is done to either appear more intelligent or to stake a new ground and be the self-anointed expert. What's wrong with eating habits?

morsch 6y ago
The article (and the related book[1], written by a linguist) introduce the term to refer to cultural rules around what foods to combine, either at the same time or sequentially. Eating habits is a very general term. The first 3 google results I got[2][3][4] aren't really related to what the article refers to as food grammar. I'd say referring to habit stresses the individual preference, while referring to a grammar stresses the cultural preference. I'll say that if the Google results for grammar inside the book are exhaustive, the concept isn't fully developed though. I'd have expected a longer, systematic list of food-grammatical rules. [1] https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/7BF0AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT163&bsq=grammar https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/7BF0AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gb... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/eating_habits.html https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/eating_habit... [3] https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ad1169 https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ad1169 [4] https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/bad-eating-habits-and-how-to-break-them.aspx https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/b...
crazygringo 6y ago
They're different concepts. Eating habits are, well, just habits. They're what you usually do. But they don't embody notions of right and wrong. Grammars embody notions of right and wrong. Americans don't avoid eating horses and dogs because it's not part of their habit, they do it because they think it's wrong. Habits are relatively easy to change. Grammars are not. I think food grammar is a great term.
- roelschroeven 6y ago
  I think 'style' would be a much better name. Grammar describes how to put words together, style describes which combinations are a good idea and which aren't.

morsch 6y ago

The article (and the related book[1], written by a linguist) introduce the term to refer to cultural rules around what foods to combine, either at the same time or sequentially. Eating habits is a very general term. The first 3 google results I got[2][3][4] aren't really related to what the article refers to as food grammar. I'd say referring to habit stresses the individual preference, while referring to a grammar stresses the cultural preference. I'll say that if the Google results for grammar inside the book are exhaustive, the concept isn't fully developed though. I'd have expected a longer, systematic list of food-grammatical rules. [1] https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/7BF0AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT163&bsq=grammar https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/7BF0AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gb... [2] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/eating_habits.html https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/eating_habit... [3] https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ad1169 https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ad1169 [4] https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/bad-eating-habits-and-how-to-break-them.aspx https://www.everydayhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition-pictures/b...

crazygringo 6y ago

They're different concepts. Eating habits are, well, just habits. They're what you usually do. But they don't embody notions of right and wrong. Grammars embody notions of right and wrong. Americans don't avoid eating horses and dogs because it's not part of their habit, they do it because they think it's wrong. Habits are relatively easy to change. Grammars are not. I think food grammar is a great term.

roelschroeven 6y ago
I think 'style' would be a much better name. Grammar describes how to put words together, style describes which combinations are a good idea and which aren't.