On selected echoic verbs related to the act of eating and their expressive markedness in contemporary Polish

Abstract

This article discusses the topic of echoic verbs related to the act of eating in the context of their expressive nature in contemporary Polish. The author pays attention to verbs that, according to Maciej Mączyński, indicate the “piggish” model of eating (including ciamkać, glamać, mlaskać, siorbać), verifies which of them are noticed in modern general dictionaries of the Polish language with meanings related to food, and analyses the microstructure of the entries, pointing to indications of the expressive nature of the verbs. She refers the conclusions on the contemporary expressive nature of the analysed verbs to the findings of psychologists regarding misophonia. Moreover, she bases them on observing new phenomena and trends on the Internet, including ASMR, mukbangs, and food challenges. The analysis of contexts has shown that the today’s aƫ tude to the sounds made while eating is diff erentiated and determined by biological, cultural, psychological, and social factors.