Abstract
Time in terms of space
Highlights
Across cultures, people use spatial representations for time: graphs, time-lines, clocks, sundials, hourglasses, calendars, etc
In order to investigate further the possible variability in space-time mappings across cultures, a series of standardized linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks were developed and published in the L&C Field Manuals and Stimulus Materials [fieldmanuals.mpi.nl], which led to the research reported in many of the papers featured in this volume
While English speakers allude to time on a horizontal axis, as shown in the examples above, Mandarin has a linguistic metaphor which places time on a vertical axis where the past is up and the future down, explored by Lai and Boroditsky (2013), and Bergen and Chan Lau (2012)
Summary
People use spatial representations for time: graphs, time-lines, clocks, sundials, hourglasses, calendars, etc. The impetus for this collection was the finding by Boroditsky and Gaby (2010) that speakers of Australian languages with absolute spatial reference systems represent time along an east-west axis rather than using a relative spatial axis provided by their bodies. In order to investigate further the possible variability in space-time mappings across cultures, a series of standardized linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks were developed and published in the L&C Field Manuals and Stimulus Materials [fieldmanuals.mpi.nl], which led to the research reported in many of the papers featured in this volume.
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