Recently I read the following exchange:

```

    A: 何か食べたい？
    B: お肉
    A: 肉か
    朝から肉ねえ。
    俺は冷蔵庫を物色する。
    案の定肉は切らしていた
    A: 昨晩、使い切ったからな。ソーセージもベーコンもハムすら無い
    B: お肉無い？
    A: ああ。無い。肉どころかハムやソーセージなどの燻製ものすら無い
    
```

Judging from it, there seems to be a large distinction drawn between 肉 and 燻製.
Specifically, I'm wondering if in Japanese it's always the case that when you
say `肉を食べたい` you mean that you want to eat non-preserved meats.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-23T15:38:37.293
58107
2021-07-28T15:03:25.287
10045
question
word-choice nuances
Does 肉 only mean non-preserved meats?
You encountered two contextual meanings of 肉. It is fairly common in most
languages to use the same word for a concept as well as in a more narrow sense
for a specific object.

Compare to English where meat in "a piece of meat" is not the same as "being a
meat eater". Japanese distinguishes between a specific object and general
category only by context only, not by grammatical construction, so this kind
of confusion is common.

  1. 肉を食べたい . Meat in the general sense. Including all meat products like sausages and smoked meat. In this statement meat includes preserved meat.
  2. 冷蔵庫に肉がある. A specific piece of raw meat in your fridge.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-04-23T16:18:17.417
58109
2018-06-25T01:19:44.560
2018-06-25T01:19:44.560
26563
58107
answer
`肉` in response to `何か食べたい?` "do you want to eat anything?" refers to a kind
of dish. I think it's the same in English. "What's the dinner, honey? Chicken"
refers to a dish where a chicken meat is a center piece.

So the first three lines set the scene where readers mentally picture a meat
dish, which is unusual choice for a breakfast and thus implies a big appetite.
But then next, it is revealed that there's no meat piece that's suitable for
that, which leads to `肉どころかハムやソーセージなどの燻製ものすら無い`

This means not only there's no meat in the fridge that can be used as the
center piece of a dish that meets the implied appetite, but there are also no
ham, bacon, nor sausages, which are common ingredients of a breakfast and thus
could have been an answer that somewhat meets the ask, if not very well.

So all in all, I don't read that there is a distinction between `肉` and `燻製`.
Rather, the distinction is made between a main piece of a meat dish that's
unusual for breakfast, vs the kind of side meat thingy that commonly shows up
in breakfast.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-06-24T23:53:18.750
59697
2018-06-24T23:53:18.750
3059
58107
answer