In this post, I would like to present what junk is and the use of junk in real life context. As I know, Junk is not a kind of proper noun. We can only find this word in some contexts like informal condition. I choose this word because I do not know much what junk is. I just can find junk in two dictions; there are junk food and junk mail. When I hear junk, it does not seem like trash. It doesn’t have any disgusting or smell senses likes trash. So, I want to discuss it with some review about junk. Actually, my focus is the use of Junk in Junk Food diction. Why it is common to say Junk in food diction? Doesn’t seem disgusting?
Junk \ˈjəŋk\ is an old or unwanted object that has no use or value. In the middle of 14th century, the thing that has been useless is still called worthless stuff. Besides that, Old French had found Junke as old cable or rope and Latin also had found Juncus as rush. In 1842, Junk was started to use by Nautical for old refuse from boats and ships. Then, the meaning of Junk had been used for old or discarded articles of any kind in 1884. The verb meaning “to throw away as trash, to scrap” is junk starting form 1916. Junk has some synonymy’s words like trash, garbage, rush, litter and so on. Junk does not always used for useless or refused thing. If I look at the dictionary, I just can find some dictions form junk; there are junk food, junk mail and junk bond. From the dictions, I start to conclude that Junk actually is not same with trash. It does not have the sense of disgusting or smell. It also does not seem like the useless or refuse things. Why I said like that? Junk food is eaten by everyone and it is expensive. Junk mail is letters, especially advertisements, which are sent by organizations to large numbers of people and used to show disapproval. It shows a refusing but does not seem disgusting or smell. Junk bond is a high-risk bond that offers a high yield. It is a kind of job that has high yield even high risk also but it does not have useless sense. So, Junk is not same with trash, rubbish, garbage or rush. Now, I want to discuss one of the junk using in real life context. It is Junk Food.
Junk food is food that is not good for your health because it contents high amount of fat or sugar. For other word, junk food is food that has no value to eat. We usually call it fast food. The food is cooked in a few minutes in 180-200o C. Typically, the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out or take-away. Sometimes people are confused whether junk food and fast food is same or not. If we look at in dictionary, Junk is an informal word. It means that we have more politeness to say fast food rather than junk food.
As I write before, Junk is useless or refuses things but it does not apply in this diction. I had observed about the uses of Junk in terms of junk food. I started to ask “Do you like eating Junk Food?” to 10 people. Most of them said yes but it is not a habitual action. It is because they know that junk food is expensive and not good for their health, but it is still delicious. They only know that junk food is same with fast food. Then, I continued with second question. “If the word “junk” is changed by “trash”, do you feel good to eat it?” They said no. Some of them said that trash has more disgusting sense than junk. They imagine that the food is a kind of trash. They would not like to eat that.
From the example above, I analyze that the relation between synonymy and diction (syntactical and semantic arrangement of words) sometimes broke the sense. In this case, trash could not replace the word junk. Trash gives more disgusting sense than junk. Junk and Trash has different quaintifiers; means that if we imagine those words, they capture as different things. Trash will capture a disgusting and smell thing, while junk is realted to fppd and mail. Even trash is synonymy with junk; they have different sense when we put in sentences. Trash and Junk are also informal word in explaining something useless or poor quality.
I can conclude that junk is a word that can make something more valuable. As in semantics lesson, I learned about what happen if two words are fight, means that they are crash. One word may be ignored or changed, for example the word sky and heaven. Heaven was used to a word that identifies sky or something outside the earth. But, when the word sky was appeared, the meaning of heaven was changed. It is became something more religion. I do not know yet whether the junk and trash are fight or not. The important thing is junk does not represent trash. It is more valuable than trash. I think it also apply for junk mail and junk bond. Those have meaning something high and valuable than if we changed that into trash.