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Temporal scenery

Experiential bases for deictic concepts of time in East Asian languages
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Abstract

The present article analyzes the conceptual patterns of temporal deixis in Ainu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Ryukyuan. It demonstrates that Lakoff and Johnson’s notions ‘moving time’ and ‘moving observer’ are more or less applicable to the five East Asian languages but are not necessarily mutually exclusive conceptions. Deictic expressions of time in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can presuppose both moving time and moving observer, while comparable expressions in Ainu and Ryukyuan, only moving time. It is argued that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean have busier “temporal scenery” for expressions of temporal deixis than Ainu and Ryukyuan do.

Abstract

The present article analyzes the conceptual patterns of temporal deixis in Ainu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Ryukyuan. It demonstrates that Lakoff and Johnson’s notions ‘moving time’ and ‘moving observer’ are more or less applicable to the five East Asian languages but are not necessarily mutually exclusive conceptions. Deictic expressions of time in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can presuppose both moving time and moving observer, while comparable expressions in Ainu and Ryukyuan, only moving time. It is argued that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean have busier “temporal scenery” for expressions of temporal deixis than Ainu and Ryukyuan do.

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.52.10izu

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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