Comparative Analysis

Written by: Aleena Abid A-2 20-07-20

The primary point to be looked at when comparing texts is considering the genre because that can
significantly affect writing. The first text is a blog from an online website. The tone and the register
are informal and chatty. It mentions that “ketchup” is a loanword from Chinese and subsequently its
spellings have changed from “koe-chiap” to ketchup. In the news feature another borrowed word is
mentioned “umami” that suggest that the borrowing from other languages continued in the English
langiuage. The tone is talkative which can be judged from the fact that the author writes as if they
are speaking “and did, of course, contain…” and “plus herbs and spices”. We usually use the word
plus when we are speaking rather than writing formal pieces of writing.

This extract comes from an 18th-century cookbook; a recipe. The very prominent change in
orthography to be noticed from the Late Modern Era is the shift from f in place of s, in words such as
beft changed to best, wafhed to washed, fhred to shred and so on. There is an inflection from the
“ ‘s” to –ed in “mouth’d”. Archaic or obsolete words such as “therein” are used which are no longer
in use. The word “efchalot” has gone through a lot of transformation through the ages from efchalot
to eschalot and now in the modern age is called a shallot. The tone used in the recipe is imperative
and contains orders with key words such as “take”, “put” and “add”. Verbs are used to convey the
orders in a recipe. Cooking jargon is used; portrayed in words like “pint”,mace”,”sliced” etc. The
register is strictly formal, something that Modern Day recipes may deviate from in an effort to create
an approachable and attractive piece of writing for everyone to read. One thing to be noticed, that is
highly distinguishable is that the 18th Century cookbook is specifically compiled for “house-wives” as
the title categorises the book: “The Compleate Housewife” which suggests that in that era cooking
was only deemed fit for women but in today’s world as gender roles change and every person is
seen doing all sorts of activities from all walks of life; categorising a whole book to one fraction of a
society would be seen as highly offensive and gender-biased. This is the reason behind the fact that
in today’s age you would never come across a piece of writing assigned to a specific gender like this.
It may have their audience as such but it will rarely declare this in their titles.

The syntactical structure in this recipe is interesting and something we scarcely encounter. Unlike
texts written in Present Day English; throughout the extract the sentences are separated by commas
and semi-colons instead of full-stops. The syntactical structures are long albeit specific and to the
point describing just the actions to be performed e.g. instead of writing “when it is cold” the author
repetitively writes “and when cold” and “when near cold”. Although the differences are very
prominent, there are similarities to Present Day English too such as the spellings of nutmeg,
anchovies, lemon and ginger etc. These words have not transitioned throughout the ages.

The tone and register of the news feature is somewhat between formal and informal. It starts with a
listing of foods items to point towards the main theme of the topic and builds towards the main
topic which is ketchup. Food jargon is used such as “greasy foods” and “sweet, savoury and acidic”.
As compared to the blog, the tone and register are informative rather than chatty. Though, it is
informal than the recipe because it uses onomatopoeia to imitate the sound of sauce as “glug”. The
borrowing of words from other languages continues such as “umami” from Japanese. The language
of the writer unlike the online blog is indefinite as the writer writes “seems to have” and “I believe”
which infers that the writer is not sure as to where ketchup came from.