The Mental Resource of Modern English Gastronomic Advertising Discourse

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study and comparison of the mental resource of two types of modern English gastronomic discourse – modern gastronomic advertising discourse and modern gastronomic advertising aesthetic discourse. The basic constituents of the conceptual systems of modern English gastronomic advertising and aesthetic discourses – discourse concepts-autochthons, as well as system connections between them, are statistically verified with the help of quantitative methods in linguistics. The reproduction of the established features of the concept systems in cognitive maps has allowed to reveal common and distinctive features in understanding gastronomic advertising discourse by various representatives of the English community – statistically average consumers and aesthete-gourmets. In particular, it was found that the frame of the conceptual systems is 49 autochthons for the MEGAD and 48 for the MEGAAD, which captures the main mental dominant for the cognitive-communicative activity of the modern English average consumer and aesthete-gourmet in the gastronomic segment of life. Thus, water and drinks, pastries, sweets and dairy products, fast food, preservation (freezing and preserving) of products, food for animals, healthy eating, taste and sensation, nutrition, brand and price of a product are significant for the average English-speaking consumer. Instead, MEGAAD has an actualized knowledge of the dish as an aesthetic creature with special ingredients, consumed in special time and temporal conditions, is prepared in a special way, creates special sensations, is useful, has a special nutritional value, dietary properties and is presented in the blog – a special section with a theme, describing the author's experiences, his feelings and emotions, first of all aesthetic pleasure.