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Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand

Abstract

Do people think about time the way they talk about it? This chapter examines dissociations between temporal language and temporal thinking in speakers of English and of Darija, a dialect of Moroccan Arabic. In both languages, conventional metaphors suggest that the future is ahead of the speaker and the past is behind. Yet, English speakers typically conceptualize the future as rightward and the past as leftward – a spatial mapping that is not conventionalized in any known spoken language. Darija speakers typically conceptualize the past as ahead and the future a behind them – a spatial mapping that directly contradicts their verbal metaphors. Darija speakers’ “backward” mapping of time does not appear to arise from any feature of their language, or from their physical experience with the natural world, but rather from their cultural bias to focus on the past (i.e., to value their ancestry and practice ancient traditions). Analyses of verbal space-time metaphors reveal that humans’ temporal thinking depends, in part, on spatial mappings. Yet, essential features of these mappings, including their spatial orientation and direction, may be absent from language and can only be discovered using extra-linguistic methods. Beyond the influences of language and of physical experience, cultural values and non-linguistic cultural practices can play important roles in shaping our mental representations of time. As a result, at any moment people may be thinking about time differently from the way they are talking about it, using different spatial schemas.

Abstract

Do people think about time the way they talk about it? This chapter examines dissociations between temporal language and temporal thinking in speakers of English and of Darija, a dialect of Moroccan Arabic. In both languages, conventional metaphors suggest that the future is ahead of the speaker and the past is behind. Yet, English speakers typically conceptualize the future as rightward and the past as leftward – a spatial mapping that is not conventionalized in any known spoken language. Darija speakers typically conceptualize the past as ahead and the future a behind them – a spatial mapping that directly contradicts their verbal metaphors. Darija speakers’ “backward” mapping of time does not appear to arise from any feature of their language, or from their physical experience with the natural world, but rather from their cultural bias to focus on the past (i.e., to value their ancestry and practice ancient traditions). Analyses of verbal space-time metaphors reveal that humans’ temporal thinking depends, in part, on spatial mappings. Yet, essential features of these mappings, including their spatial orientation and direction, may be absent from language and can only be discovered using extra-linguistic methods. Beyond the influences of language and of physical experience, cultural values and non-linguistic cultural practices can play important roles in shaping our mental representations of time. As a result, at any moment people may be thinking about time differently from the way they are talking about it, using different spatial schemas.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Timeless concept of Temporality
  6. Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
  7. Spatial construal of time extended
  8. Situating Events in Language 27
  9. Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
  10. Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
  11. Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
  12. The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
  13. Time conceptualizations beyond space
  14. The cultural cognition of time 125
  15. When time is not space 151
  16. Metaphor and thought 187
  17. Conceptualizations of temporal categories
  18. Temporal scenery 207
  19. Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
  20. Distributional sources of time conceptualization
  21. Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
  22. Time-discretising adverbials 295
  23. Author index 317
  24. Subject index 323
Conceptualizations of Time
This chapter is in the book Conceptualizations of Time
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.04cas

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. Timeless concept of Temporality
  6. Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
  7. Spatial construal of time extended
  8. Situating Events in Language 27
  9. Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
  10. Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
  11. Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
  12. The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
  13. Time conceptualizations beyond space
  14. The cultural cognition of time 125
  15. When time is not space 151
  16. Metaphor and thought 187
  17. Conceptualizations of temporal categories
  18. Temporal scenery 207
  19. Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
  20. Distributional sources of time conceptualization
  21. Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
  22. Time-discretising adverbials 295
  23. Author index 317
  24. Subject index 323
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