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Chapter 8. Dinner for One

The use of language in eating shows on YouTube
  • Sofia Rüdiger
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Talking about Food
This chapter is in the book Talking about Food

Abstract

In this chapter, I investigate discursive practices in eating shows, so-called Mukbang, on YouTube. Originally a South Korean phenomenon, the object of this study are the globalized, Anglophone, and asynchronous instantiations of these shows. Based on a corpus of English-language eating shows, I demonstrate how the Mukbang performers construct their discourse as a conversation over food which resembles but is also different from traditional face-to-face dinner/lunch conversations. In order to do so, the YouTubers draw on a range of linguistic strategies, such as imperatives, questions, terms of address and nicknames, pronouns, topical choices, and the characteristics of delayed interaction.

Abstract

In this chapter, I investigate discursive practices in eating shows, so-called Mukbang, on YouTube. Originally a South Korean phenomenon, the object of this study are the globalized, Anglophone, and asynchronous instantiations of these shows. Based on a corpus of English-language eating shows, I demonstrate how the Mukbang performers construct their discourse as a conversation over food which resembles but is also different from traditional face-to-face dinner/lunch conversations. In order to do so, the YouTubers draw on a range of linguistic strategies, such as imperatives, questions, terms of address and nicknames, pronouns, topical choices, and the characteristics of delayed interaction.

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