Abstract
This study investigates how typological and metaphorical construal differences may affect the use and frequency of temporal expressions in English and Spanish. More precisely, we explore whether there are any differences between English, a satellite-framed language, and Spanish, a verb-framed language, in the use of certain temporal linguistic expressions that include a spatial, deictic component (Deictic Time), a purely temporal relation between two events (Sequential Time) or the expression of the duration of an event (Duration). To achieve this, we perform two different types of studies. First, we conduct an informational gain or loss analysis of 1,650 of English-to-Spanish translations extracted from parallel corpora. Secondly, we compare the frequency of 33 English and 27 Spanish temporal expressions in two similar written online corpora (EnTenTen and EsTenTen, respectively) and a television news spoken corpus (NewsScape). Our results suggest that English uses “deictic expressions with directional language” (explicitly stating the spatial location of the temporal event, e.g., back in those days/in the future ahead) much more frequently than Spanish, to the extent that such directional information is often excluded in English-to-Spanish translations. Also, sequential expressions (such as before that/later than) and duration expressions (during the whole day) are much more frequent in Spanish. These usage differences, explained by the variability in motion typology and metaphoric construal, open up the interesting question of how these differences in linguistic usage could affect the conceptualization of time of English and Spanish speakers.
Highlights
English and Spanish belong to two different classes regarding the expression of motion: English is a satellite-framed language, expressing the path of motion in satellites or prepositional phrases, and including manner of motion directly in the verb
We want to explore the hypothesis that, in a similar way to what happens in motion, the expression of time in English will be more dynamic and will include more specific details about the temporal scene, while Spanish speakers will lean to a greater extent on the inferential work of addressees
Language has already been shown to play a significant role in the structuring of a domain as fundamental as spatial cognition (e.g., Majid et al, 2004), which justifies the question: given the well-known influence of space and motion on time, could these typological distinctions of motion have an effect on temporal cognition? In order to answer the question adequately, we review the domain of time, paying special attention to its spatial bases
Summary
English and Spanish belong to two different classes regarding the expression of motion: English is a satellite-framed language, expressing the path of motion in satellites (e.g., up and down) or prepositional phrases (e.g., into/out of the house), and including manner of motion directly in the verb (e.g., walk, slide, and crawl). These distinctions have been shown to affect how people focus their attention when describing a motion scene (Slobin, 1996b, 2003): English speakers adopt a more dynamic “rhetorical style,” specifying details of manner and mentioning. The present study tries to examine whether the typological differences found in the domain of motion for English and Spanish will affect the usage patterns of the different types of temporal expressions in these two languages. We want to explore the hypothesis that, in a similar way to what happens in motion, the expression of time in English will be more dynamic and will include more specific details about the temporal scene, while Spanish speakers will lean to a greater extent on the inferential work of addressees. The paper ends with a discussion of the consequences of the differences found and suggestions for further research
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