GASTRONOMIC TERMS AS A SOURCE FOR THE GROWTH IN THE CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS ENGLISH LEXICON

Abstract

The article provides an analysis of intra-lingual (structural and semantic) and extra-lingual (socio-cultural) aspects of the growth in the contemporary Business English lexicon by means of gastronomic terms. The integral strategy of the research is based on the assumption that there is a correlation between nomination acts and new phenomena related to the economic sphere. A survey of the relevant lexical and phraseological units makes it possible to determine the key ways, means and mechanisms of word-formation and phrase-formation. It is further concluded that metaphorical transposition is one of the most widespread means of nomination. Bearing in mind its dual semantic nature, the classification of new words and phrases is developed based on their belonging to the source domains and target domains. New phenomena in the economic sphere are mostly understood in terms of food, drinks, tableware, kitchen utensils, cooking, meals, food service, and food culture. The paper reveals that a high concentration of gastronomic metaphors is observed around socially significant phenomena in business activities, finance, stock market, marketing, retail trading, corporate culture, management, human resources, globalization, health and environmental issues of economy. A variety of metaphorical models, described in the article, proves that gastronomic metaphors are widely used to give names to businesspeople, countries, economic phenomena, money, goods and services. The paper also analyzes a wide range of other ways, means and mechanisms of nomination through using gastronomic terms in Business English lexicon. Expressiveness, emotional and cultural marking are the main features of new Business English words and phrases formed by means of gastronomic terms, which make problematic to distinguish between layers of the contemporary Business English lexicon.