Conference Presentations by Keyi Sun
It has been suggested that Mandarin and English speakers conceive of time on different physical d... more It has been suggested that Mandarin and English speakers conceive of time on different physical dimensions. English speakers use the sagittal and transverse axes often; whereas Mandarin speakers use the sagittal and vertical axes often (Boroditsky, 2001; Casasanto & Jasmin, 2012). Previous studies looked at these cross-dimensional differences. The current study further explores the work from Fuhrman et al. (2011) and studies within-dimension differences between the two languages. Both monolinguals and bilinguals of the two languages were tested. Results suggest a possible effect of language on the association between time and direction. The current paper also provides alternative explanation for the vertical temporal direction in English.
My previous study showed that English and Mandarin speakers perceive temporal information mostly ... more My previous study showed that English and Mandarin speakers perceive temporal information mostly differently on the sagittal and vertical dimensions. The current study look at the effect of temporal information on bodily movements. Sequential time is dominant in Mandarin, and we found that Mandarin-English bilinguals' body movement patterns in the Mandarin condition were consistent with sequential time. English monolinguals' body movement patterns varied according to what type of information they perceived. When they perceived a first person's information, they behaved according to deictic time, and when they perceived a third person's information, they behaved according to sequential time. These results are consistent with the difference between deictic time and sequential time and for the first time it was found that people's bodily motion can also be consistent with sequential time.
Drafts by Keyi Sun
The Chinese used to look at the history and seek answers to solve current problems. Traditional v... more The Chinese used to look at the history and seek answers to solve current problems. Traditional values are highly promoted. The current study looked at this phenomenon from a cognitive linguistic point of view, do Chinese speakers think that the future is back and the past is front? A body-sway experiment was conducted based on a previous pilot study, and it found that Mandarin speakers' body movement patterns were consistent with the front-past and back-future associations. This result is also consistent with the idea that sequential time is dominant in Mandarin, suggesting that not only linguistically, Mandarin speakers also physically showed an implicit preference to view the past as ahead.
Papers by Keyi Sun
Existing studies suggest that English speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and transv... more Existing studies suggest that English speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and transverse axes (Casasanto & Jasmin, 2012), whereas Mandarin speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and vertical axes (Boroditsky 2001; Scott, 1989). It has been suggested that the different temporal directions on the sagittal dimension between the two languages are likely to be caused by the different emphases of temporal sequences: deictic time vs. sequential time. While a large amount of literature has focused on differences across the two languages in terms of using different axes, very little has looked at differences that exist within axes. I report findings from English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals and Mandarin-English (ME) bilinguals on an explicit task that involves pointing directions for temporal words. It showed that English monolinguals associated the future with front and up; the overt encoding of metaphor has a significant effect in Mandarin but not in English. ...
THE EffECT Of LANGUAGE AND SPATIAL INFORMATION ON THE PERCEPTiON Of TIME IN MANDARIN AND ENGLISH SPEAKERS
Te Reo, 2017
Existing studies suggest that English speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and transv... more Existing studies suggest that English speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and transverse axes (Casasanto & Jasmin, 2012), whereas Mandarin speakers conceptualize time on both the sagittal and vertical axes (Boroditsky 2001; Scott, 1989). It has been suggested that the different temporal directions on the sagittal dimension between the two languages are likely to be caused by the different emphases of temporal sequences: deictic time vs. sequential time. While a large amount of literature has focused on differences across the two languages in terms of using different axes, very little has looked at differences that exist within axes. I report findings from English monolinguals, Mandarin monolinguals and Mandarin-English (ME) bilinguals on an explicit task that involves pointing directions for temporal words. It showed that English monolinguals associated the future with front and up; the overt encoding of metaphor has a significant effect in Mandarin but not in English. More importantly, ME bilinguals showed intermediate patterns. The current study tested cross-linguistic influences on the perception of temporal information. It found that when two languages encode time with different spatial words, both language and spatial cues can affect bilingual speakers' associations between time and directions. Future studies could test other languages, such as Mäori, which see the past as ahead and the future as behind based on visual accessibility.
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Conference Presentations by Keyi Sun
Drafts by Keyi Sun
Papers by Keyi Sun