The cultural cognition of time
-
Roy Ellen
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of some recent work in anthropology on how time cognition works and on the human measurement of time. It attempts to demonstrate how language, mind, social process and ecology interact to underpin the ways in which different cultural groups experience, use and understand time. I review how time is constituted as a domain, examining different kinds of unit by which time is divided, and thereafter consider the logics through which the organization of time is integrated. These problems include the juxtaposition of cyclical and linear notions; the intrinsic complementarity of idioms of space and time; whether ‘time as such’ is a cognitive domain and conceptual universal beyond the particularities of local culture experience; whether the architectures of dualism and cognitive economy are integral to our understanding of time; the extent to which memory and narrativity are crucial to human constructions of time; and whether certain aspects of time organization depend entirely on its encoding in language. The chapter concludes by agreeing with Stephen Levinson that the contribution of anthropology to understanding the language cognition of complex domains such as time is through its emphasis on grounded ethnography, an insistence on holistic approaches, on comparison and on the implications of integrating data from the extremes of cultural diversity.
Abstract
This chapter presents an overview of some recent work in anthropology on how time cognition works and on the human measurement of time. It attempts to demonstrate how language, mind, social process and ecology interact to underpin the ways in which different cultural groups experience, use and understand time. I review how time is constituted as a domain, examining different kinds of unit by which time is divided, and thereafter consider the logics through which the organization of time is integrated. These problems include the juxtaposition of cyclical and linear notions; the intrinsic complementarity of idioms of space and time; whether ‘time as such’ is a cognitive domain and conceptual universal beyond the particularities of local culture experience; whether the architectures of dualism and cognitive economy are integral to our understanding of time; the extent to which memory and narrativity are crucial to human constructions of time; and whether certain aspects of time organization depend entirely on its encoding in language. The chapter concludes by agreeing with Stephen Levinson that the contribution of anthropology to understanding the language cognition of complex domains such as time is through its emphasis on grounded ethnography, an insistence on holistic approaches, on comparison and on the implications of integrating data from the extremes of cultural diversity.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Timeless concept of Temporality
- Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
-
Spatial construal of time extended
- Situating Events in Language 27
- Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
- Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
- Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
- The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
-
Time conceptualizations beyond space
- The cultural cognition of time 125
- When time is not space 151
- Metaphor and thought 187
-
Conceptualizations of temporal categories
- Temporal scenery 207
- Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
-
Distributional sources of time conceptualization
- Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
- Time-discretising adverbials 295
- Author index 317
- Subject index 323
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction ix
-
Timeless concept of Temporality
- Temporal Reference Without the Concept of Time? 3
-
Spatial construal of time extended
- Situating Events in Language 27
- Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning 43
- Temporal Language and Temporal Thinking May Not Go Hand in Hand 67
- Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective 85
- The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information 103
-
Time conceptualizations beyond space
- The cultural cognition of time 125
- When time is not space 151
- Metaphor and thought 187
-
Conceptualizations of temporal categories
- Temporal scenery 207
- Marking anteriority, perfect and perfectivity in languages of mainland Southeast Asia – concepts, linguistic area 243
-
Distributional sources of time conceptualization
- Reflection of temporal horizon in linguistic performance 273
- Time-discretising adverbials 295
- Author index 317
- Subject index 323
