Dish names constructed on non-standard lexemes and on obscure proper nouns: semantic opacity as a selling point to satisfy ingenuous tourists’ appetite
Résumé
The contribution of the present study is to focus on a particular aspect of the variety of French used in dish names on restaurant menus of a tourist resort, the commune of Le Grand-Bornand . Indeed, a considerable part of these names is constructed (i) sometimes on lexemes that do not belong to the varieties of French spoken by most French speaking tourists staying in Le Grand-Bornand (originating mainly from Northern France, and, secondarily, from Belgium), and that they do not readily understand, (ii) sometimes on proper nouns refering to persons and places, the existence of which these tourists ignore. After we have submitted these lexemes and proper nouns to a concise lexicological analysis, we will demonstrate that these opaque designations are, notably, motivated by mercantile interests.