The words we use to talk about food offer surprising insights about history, economics, psychology, and even evolution.
During a January 14 SFI Community Lecture in Santa Fe, Stanford linguist Daniel Jurafsky explored the relationship between food and language around the globe, from the origins of America’s national condiment as a Chinese fermented fish sauce to the reason crispy food brands tend to have different vowels than their creamy counterparts.
Watch Jurafsky's talk (67 minutes)
Read the Santa Fe New Mexican's preview of the talk (January 14, 2015)
Jurafsky, a 2002 MacArthur Fellow, is professor and chair of linguistics and professor of computer science at Stanford University. He recently published The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu.
The 2015 Community Lecture series is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Thornburg Investment Management.
For a complete listing of upcoming SFI community events, visit here.
Read an article about the lecture in Pasatiempo (January 9, 2015)
Read an article about the lecture in the Albuquerque Journal North (January 9, 2015)