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Chapter 10. Time in Chinese hands

Gesture and sign
  • Yan Gu
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Time Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity
This chapter is in the book Time Representations in the Perspective of Human Creativity

Abstract

This chapter examines how Chinese people (Mandarin monolinguals; Mandarin-English bilinguals; deaf Chinese Sign Language (CSL) signers; Mandarin learners of CSL) use gestures and signs to creatively represent time. All groups spatialize time on the lateral, vertical, and sagittal axes, but differ in their choices of axes and directions of movements. For instance, Mandarin-English bilinguals produce more vertical time gestures in Mandarin than in English. Mandarin speakers can produce past-in-front and past-at-back gestures, whereas CSL deaf signers only exploit past-at-back signs. Mandarin learners of CSL perform more past-at-back gestures than Mandarin-speaking non-signers. In short, cultural, linguistic, and bodily experiences can jointly shape how Chinese people express time creatively in different modalities.

Abstract

This chapter examines how Chinese people (Mandarin monolinguals; Mandarin-English bilinguals; deaf Chinese Sign Language (CSL) signers; Mandarin learners of CSL) use gestures and signs to creatively represent time. All groups spatialize time on the lateral, vertical, and sagittal axes, but differ in their choices of axes and directions of movements. For instance, Mandarin-English bilinguals produce more vertical time gestures in Mandarin than in English. Mandarin speakers can produce past-in-front and past-at-back gestures, whereas CSL deaf signers only exploit past-at-back signs. Mandarin learners of CSL perform more past-at-back gestures than Mandarin-speaking non-signers. In short, cultural, linguistic, and bodily experiences can jointly shape how Chinese people express time creatively in different modalities.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Time and creativity in language
  6. Chapter 1. A corpus-based look at time metaphors 15
  7. Chapter 2. Time moves more often in poetry 41
  8. Chapter 3. What is time? 61
  9. Chapter 4. Working on it 81
  10. Part II. Beyond language
  11. Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression 101
  12. Chapter 6. Time-creation in film 125
  13. Chapter 7. Beyond the limits 147
  14. Chapter 8. From “slow lettuce” to “striated time” 163
  15. Chapter 9. Physical and imaginary landmarks in English time gestures 187
  16. Chapter 10. Time in Chinese hands 209
  17. Epilogue. Creative to whom, and on what basis? 233
  18. Index 243
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.75.10gu

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Time and creativity in language
  6. Chapter 1. A corpus-based look at time metaphors 15
  7. Chapter 2. Time moves more often in poetry 41
  8. Chapter 3. What is time? 61
  9. Chapter 4. Working on it 81
  10. Part II. Beyond language
  11. Chapter 5. Creative visual metaphors of protracted and frozen time in autobiographical comics about depression 101
  12. Chapter 6. Time-creation in film 125
  13. Chapter 7. Beyond the limits 147
  14. Chapter 8. From “slow lettuce” to “striated time” 163
  15. Chapter 9. Physical and imaginary landmarks in English time gestures 187
  16. Chapter 10. Time in Chinese hands 209
  17. Epilogue. Creative to whom, and on what basis? 233
  18. Index 243
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