Conceptualization of time in Pashto language

Abstract

Past studies have investigated metaphoric correlations between time and space or objects from cognitive semantic perspective in different anguages, drawing interesting similarities and cultural differences in the conceptualization of time. This paper departs from the existing literature by examining the concept of time in Pashto language from a cognitive semantic perspective based on the theoretical model of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (hereafter CMT) to find out various conceptual etaphors (hereafter CM) for time in Pashto language and poetry. Linguistic data of 150 sentences and clauses were extracted from the Pashto-English dictionary (Zeeya, 2009), Da Ghani Kulyat (Ghani 1985), Dewan Abdur Rahman Baba (Rahman, 1947), Tsraagh (Saqib, 2019) and everyday language on the basis of topical words and phrases conveying the concept of time. The topical words and phrases technique was used to retrieve the clauses or sentences denoting the concept/theme of time. CMT was used to analyze the clauses and sentences to investigate the source domains which structure the abstract concept of time in Pashto. Eight metaphors for the representation of time emerge from the analysis: i) time is object in motion; ii) time is a thing; iii) time is bounded space; iv) moments of time are landmarks in space and past is in the front, while future is at the back; v) time is person; vi) Time is measurable quantity; vii) time is a valuable commodity; and viii) time passing is tasting it. Contrary to English, Pashto speakers locate past time in the front while locating the future at the back. The present paper recommends further studies in Pashto language from cognitive semantic perspective to examine the tenets of CMT in Indo-Iranian languages to investigate its cross-cultural implications.