Temporal metaphors in discourse

Language and Cognitive Processes, 2002

Temporal language is often couched in spatial metaphors. English has been claimed to have two space!time metaphoric systems: the ego-moving metaphor, wherein the observer's context progresses along the time-line towards the future, and the time-moving metaphor, wherein time is conceived of as a river or conveyor belt on which events are moving from the future to the past. In three experiments, we investigated the psychological status of these metaphors by asking subjects to carry out temporal inferences stated in terms of spatial metaphors. In Experiment 1, we found that subjects were slowed in their processing when the assertions shifted from one spatial metaphoric system to the other. In Experiment 2, we determined that this cost of shifting could not be attributed to local lexical factors. In Experiment 3, we again found this metaphor consistency effect in a naturalistic version of the study in which we asked commonsense time questions of passengers at an airport. The results of the three studies provide converging evidence that people use spatial metaphors in temporal reasoning. Implications for the status of metaphoric systems are discussed.

2018

Linguistic relativity holds an idea that structure of language affects the ways people conceptualize the world. It grows into two hypotheses which are linguistic relativism and determinism. The hypotheses explain how language and culture relate one another. The close relation is reflected through different system of sign, systematic conventional use of sounds or written symbol in different society (Crystal, 1971 and 1992) as what occurs in metaphor. Metaphor is not only written symbol but also thought and action rooted in our bodily experience (Yu, 1998, p.43). Therefore time as abstract concept should be best conceptualized through space. Keywords : metaphor, spatiotemporal metaphor, ego-moving, time-moving

Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 2020

This paper discusses the problem of inconsistencies in the metaphorical conceptualizations of time that involve motion within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). It demonstrates that the TIME AS A PURSUER metaphor contrasts with the reverse variant TIME AS AN OBJECT OF PURSUIT, just as the MOVING TIME metaphor contrasts with the MOVING OBSERVER variant. Such metaphorical conceptualizations of time functioning as pairs of minimally differing variants based on Figure-Ground reversal are, strictly speaking, inconsistent with one another. Looking at these inconsistencies from a wider perspective suggests that time may belong to a separate category of conceptual phenomena. This paper puts forward a proposal to approach time from the perspective of “phenomena of the third kind”, which according to Keller’s thesis include conceptual establishments resulting from human cognition, but not of human design.

Frontiers in Psychology, 2020

This study investigates how typological and metaphorical construal differences may affect the use and frequency of temporal expressions in English and Spanish. More precisely, we explore whether there are any differences between English, a satelliteframed language, and Spanish, a verb-framed language, in the use of certain temporal linguistic expressions that include a spatial, deictic component (Deictic Time), a purely temporal relation between two events (Sequential Time) or the expression of the duration of an event (Duration). To achieve this, we perform two different types of studies. First, we conduct an informational gain or loss analysis of 1,650 of Englishto-Spanish translations extracted from parallel corpora. Secondly, we compare the frequency of 33 English and 27 Spanish temporal expressions in two similar written online corpora (EnTenTen and EsTenTen, respectively) and a television news spoken corpus (NewsScape). Our results suggest that English uses "deictic expressions with directional language" (explicitly stating the spatial location of the temporal event, e.g., back in those days/in the future ahead) much more frequently than Spanish, to the extent that such directional information is often excluded in English-to-Spanish translations. Also, sequential expressions (such as before that/later than) and duration expressions (during the whole day) are much more frequent in Spanish. These usage differences, explained by the variability in motion typology and metaphoric construal, open up the interesting question of how these differences in linguistic usage could affect the conceptualization of time of English and Spanish speakers.

The present article investigates the category of temporality in the English language and demonstrates the ways of its expression in English sentences. The author enumerates types of adverbial modifier of time and enlightens the problem of expression of temporality in the structure of English sentence. The article covers a deep linguistic analysis of the syntactic component of adverbial modifier of time in English. The article provides a definition of the grammatical term \"adverbial modifier of time\" and ways of its expression in English sentences.

Research in Language, 2021

This paper discusses the duality of metaphorical conceptualizations of time focusing in particular on TIME AS A PURSUER and TIME AS AN OBJECT OF PURSUIT metaphors, which are based the Figure-Ground reversal of each other. Using examples taken from the British National Corpus, it argues that these metaphorical conceptualizations of time are inconsistent with each other. This inconsistency resembles the discrepancy between the MOVING TIME and MOVING OBSERVER metaphors, which are, in strict terms, also inconsistent with each other. Looking at such contrasts between metaphorical representations of time from a broader perspective suggests that the concept of time arises from different, both physical and socio-cultural, dimensions of human experience.

Fuel and Energy Abstracts, 2011

Cognitive Science, 2017

People often use spatial language to talk about time, and this is known to both reflect and shape how they think about it. Despite much research on the spatial grounding of temporal language and thought, little attention has been given to how spatial metaphors influence reasoning about real events, especially those in the future. In a large online study (N=2362), we framed a discussion of climate change using spatial metaphors that varied on reference-frame (egovs. time-moving), speed of movement (fast vs. slow), and time horizon (near, medium, or far future). We found that describing climate change as approaching (time-moving frame) – versus something we approach – made the issue seem more serious, but also more tractable, at least when the rate of motion was fast (e.g., “it’s rapidly approaching”). These findings offer novel insights into the relationship between spatial metaphors and temporal reasoning and how we communicate about uncertain future events.

Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, 2008

Speakers unconsciously stage bodily displays of their experience and understanding of time. Their performance is based on a genuine “choreography of time” that determines the figures they trace and their occupation of conceptual space. The choreography may be observed, studied and eventually enhanced to create new embodied approaches to cognitive grammar. But the shift from spontaneous to controlled conceptual action is not so simple, as the present study reveals.