Italianness in the Digital Food Discourse of Italian Restaurants Abroad
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis
Abstract
This study examines how Italianness is discursively constructed on the official websites of Italian restaurants abroad. Using a CADS approach, it compares English-language website texts from Italian and non-Italian restaurants in Miami. Keyword analysis reveals that the food discourse of Italian restaurants is characterized by keywords that mostly show limited lexical distinctiveness. Concordance analysis shows that, in context, these keywords collectively construct Italianness around three discursive dimensions: food as cultural heritage, authenticity and tradition as cultural ideologies, and Italianness as a lived cultural experience.
Presentato: 17 Agosto 2026 | Pubblicato 22 Ottobre 2026 | Lingua: en
Keywords Gastronationalism • Food studies • Corpus linguistics • Discourse analysis • Digital business communication
Copyright © 2026 Walter Spezzano, Stefano De Cantis. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOc/2499-1562/2026/16/006