Food culture as the basis for Serbian, French and Italian phraseological expressions

Abstract

The subject of this research are Serbian, French and Italian idioms referring to culinary terminology (lexemes that denote groceries, certain types of meals and other culinary products such as lemon, bread, cheese etc.) The main objective of this article is to indicate the relationship between language and culture. Therefore, the motivation of chosen idioms is analysed in order to explore the influence of national culture on phraseological meaning. Idioms are classified into three groups: 1) idioms motivated by customs, experiences and habits of the nation, 2) idioms motivated by beliefs and stories and 3) idioms influenced by literary discourse. The analysis of our corpus shows that different experiences, habits and customs of the Serbian, French and Italian people in relation to food affect their phraseological expressions. On the other hand, despite the fact that each language brings elements of national culture, these nations can also have a similar metaphorical manner of thinking.