The Process of Food Naming in Northern Thai Dialect by Lexical Semantics Theory

Abstract

This research aims at studying the names of food in Northern Thai Dialect, emphasizing on the structures, meaning and the process of food naming, which has been analyzed under Lexical Semantics theory. The results discover that there are 2types of structures; Direct and Comparative structures. The Direct structure is consisted of ingredients, cookings, kinds, characteristics and the specific food names. The combination of the Comparative structure is divided into 2 main types as Complete and Partial comparisons, in which 8 metaphors are detected. These metaphors are Human beings, illness, human organs, supernatural, animals, time, numerals and locations.

In Northern Thai dialect, food can be categorized into 3 groups as savory food, appetizer and desserts. According to Lexical Semantics theory, the semantic relationship in food naming is composed of 2 processes which are Direct and Comparative. In Direct process, the semantic relationship is Hyponymy in those 3 food groups. Nonetheless, there are 2 kinds of relationships as Hyponymy and Antonymy in the Comparative process, under 3 Semantic Domains, that are respectively Animate, Inanimate and Supernatural.