This is a recipe from the 1600’s (1665) aimed at women because
stereotypically women would be the ones who would do all the cooking, this is
still the same today although in some cases this stereotype is challenged as
there are more male chefs. The purpose of this text is to instruct.
Throughout this recipe, it is clear to see that the language has changed
significantly although some words and phrases are still the same in today’s
language.
In terms of the discourse structure, at the beginning of each section
there is a subtitle which is a brief description of what to do; this may still
be used in today’s recipes but generally they are set out in numerical order.
Unlike recipes in the 21st century, this 1600’s recipe is all in one paragraph;
this would have been common in these times but this meant that it was harder to
follow and understand.
Graphologically, the recipe is in black and white as there wouldn’t have
been any colour in these times and as well as this no pictures are used meaning
that it may be less appealing and it contrasts the graphology of today’s
recipes as they are full of pictures of what the finished product would/should
would look like. In regards to capitalisation, all the sections start with a
large capital T and a small capital A as well as all starting with the word take,
the capitalisation of the first letter is still used today in the context of
newspapers. A variety of the words in this recipe have capital letters at the
start for example Cinnamon, Butter, Cream, Eggs, Salt, Sugar etc; this makes
the recipe a non-standard form and it is uncommon in recipes of the 21st
century,
The word ‘flower’ is a homophone because although this word is
pronounced the same as the word ‘flour’, it has a completely different meaning
and therefore is used in the wrong context. This word is used to describe a
plant found in the garden etc whereas the word ‘flour’ is a cooking ingredient
which is the word that should be used here in order for the recipe to make
sense.
An example of an archaic phrase within this recipe is ‘For it will make
it sad and heavy’ which would be classed as an old fashioned phrase that may
have been commonly used in the 1700’s, as well as this it is quite a formal
phrase with a high register. The phrase ‘on the fire’ suggests is also an
archaic phrase.
During the 1600’s there would have been a lacking of cooking equipment;
this is emphasised by the phrase ‘some sugar’ as it is clear to see that no
exact measurement is used (e.g. 200g) which would have also been due to the
lack of technology. Nowadays, technology has advanced significantly meaning
that there is a variety of equipment that can be used to measure ingredients
which suggests that this advancement in technology has allowed our language use
to develop.
‘Mingle’, used in the phrase ‘mingle with your Cream three spoonfuls of
fine flower; mingle it so well …’ - has two meanings; to mix or cause something
to mix together and engaging with people through social interaction. This word
is quite informal meaning that it isn’t suited this and due to the primary
meaning of this word in today’s society being engaging with people through
social interaction implies that another word should be used in order to fit the
genre/context of this text. However it could be argued that this is a word that
had a different meaning back in the or it may have been a word which was
commonly used within this context.
The word ‘boyl’ is spelt with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’ which is a
non-standard spelling and suggests a change in the spelling of the word;
however it still has the same meaning. A old fashioned, formal word used is
‘thus’ which dates back to Shakespearian times and may be known as an archaic
term as it is not used anymore, however this can only be said for spoken
discourse as it is still used in the context of the re-enactment of Shakespearean
or historic plays.
Additionally, the word ‘handsomely’ is an adverb and has had the letter
‘e’ added to it meaning that there has been a change in spelling of this word
which in turn makes it sound more old fashioned. There are many other examples
of syllable deletion in this recipe, for example ‘warme’ (extra ‘e’), ‘look’
(no ‘s’) and ‘Tast’ (no ‘e’). Syllable addition has been used in the word
‘quartered’, the suffix ‘ed’ has been added but it is meant to be ‘quarters’,
with the plural suffix ‘s’ on the end. Inconsistency is used when spelling the
word Barley as sometimes there is a syllable deletion of the letter ‘e’ making
it ‘Barly’ but other times it is spelt correctly with the ‘e’, ‘Barley.
In terms of sentence structure, this recipe consists of one long complex
sentence only separated by commas and semi-colons which is very informal but
may have been a norm of language in the The main sentence function
used in this recipe is imperative because of the purpose being to instruct,
examples of this include ‘put, ‘take’, wash etc.
Some of the sentences in this recipe are incomplete meaning that they do
not make sense making it hard for the reader to understand and follow; for
example, ‘and let it boil together a quarter of an hour’ (the word ‘for’ should
be added), ‘and let it be thick that it may not run out’, ‘so cut it very
handsomely what fashion you please’ (the word ‘to’ should be added and the word
fashion should be changed to a different word) and ‘let it bake till you
think it be enough’ (the word ‘will’ should be added and the omission of the
‘un’ of the word ‘till’ makes it non-standard).
Throughout the whole recipe, all of the letter ‘s’ have been substituted
by the letter ‘f’; this was very common in this period of time and people would
have found it easy to understand as they would see it all the time but if this
was used nowadays, people would find it hard to understand and recognise as it
is something they would never have seen before.
