Moving Time Metaphor Research Articles

The Aanalysis on Asymmetric Temporal Denotations of qian and hou in Modern Mandarin: Based on Lakoff & Johnson (1999)’s Theory on the Metaphorical Orientation of Time

In Modern Mandarin, qian denotes the past as well as the future, whereas the temporal denotations of hou tends to be the future. This work investigates how and why the distribution of temporal denotations of direction nouns qian and hou shows such asymmetry, based on the notion of metaphorical orientation of time (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999). Our corpus study shows that qian and hou are not associated with MOVING TIME metaphor, contrasting the findings from previous works. Rather qian and hou are shown to be frequently associated with the prototypical metaphor for time, i.e., TIME ORIENTATION metaphor: in THE PAST IS IN FRONT OF EGO, qian denotes the past, and hou denotes the future; in THE PAST IS BEHIND EGO, qian denotes the future, and hou denotes the past. We further argue that qian and hou inherently denote static spatial notion, and thus it is naturally expected that these direction nouns are not used as MOVING TIME metaphor in which time is considered as a moving object. In our corpus analysis, only qian, but not a single instance of hou, was found to be associated with MOVING EGO metaphor, an extended system from THE PAST IS BEHIND EGO. This difference results in hou’s tendency of having a much fewer instances of the past denotation than qian. Such phenomenon is expected because on THE MOVING EGO system, the ego’s natural observation and description of the environment would involve forward scene rather than backward scene while moving along the path on the time axis towards the future.

The Cognitive Study of the Effect of Cultural Artifacts on the Metaphorical Comprehension of Time Concept in Persian

In different cultures, people use space to make linguistic representations of time. In general, there are two different approaches toward deictic time expressions: a Moving Time Metaphor and a Moving Ego Metaphor. In the Moving Time metaphor, time is conceived as moving forward, while in a Moving Ego Metaphor, a moving observer is conceptualized. The purpose of this research is to explore the effect of cultural artifacts on metaphorical comprehension of time expressions in Persian language. In this regard, following Duffy and Feist (2014), the present study was carried out based on the ambiguous question: Wednesday's Meeting suggested by McGlone and Harding (1998). The first experiment directly explores the relationship between responses to the Wednesday's Meeting question in two calendar and meta-language conditions. The second experiment examines the special cultural relations between space and time and the role of the Persian orthography direction in the time reasoning. In the third experiment, based on circular representations of time, the role of the analog clock in resolving the ambiguity is examined from the Noon's Meeting question. This was done by comparing the responses of the participants with the clockwise clock and counterclockwise clock. To this end, 40 Persian speakers were selected from the students of Sistan and Baluchestan University. Chi-square test (using SPSS software) was used for statistical analysis. The findings of this study show that the viewpoint of individuals about the motion of events in time is not only due to their experience in space movement, but also is rooted in their interactive patterns of cultural artifacts as well. In addition, the results show that in interpreting ambiguous metaphorical time expressions, individuals automatically access spatial representations of time and use them. The participants who encountered with reverse space-time mappings had an interference in their responses, reflected through their time reasoning. Consequently, they provide a more precise form of representations of time than merely symbolic speech. Hence, cultural artifacts play an important role in the cognitive process of embodiment, which not only help to recognize embodiment, but also affect it.

Inconsistencies in Temporal Metaphors: Is Time a Phenomenon of the Third Kind?

Abstract This paper discusses the problem of inconsistencies in the metaphorical conceptualizations of time that involve motion within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). It demonstrates that the TIME AS A PURSUER metaphor contrasts with the reverse variant TIME AS AN OBJECT OF PURSUIT, just as the MOVING TIME metaphor contrasts with the MOVING OBSERVER variant. Such metaphorical conceptualizations of time functioning as pairs of minimally differing variants based on Figure-Ground reversal are, strictly speaking, inconsistent with one another. Looking at these inconsistencies from a wider perspective suggests that time may belong to a separate category of conceptual phenomena. This paper puts forward a proposal to approach time from the perspective of “phenomena of the third kind”, which according to Keller’s thesis include conceptual establishments resulting from human cognition, but not of human design.

Moving at the Speed of Life: How Life Pace Influences Temporal Reasoning

ABSTRACTThe Moving Time metaphor and the Moving Ego metaphor are common in English speakers’ conceptualization of time. Previous research has suggested a broad range of factors influencing people’s perspectives on the movement of events in time and their concomitant interpretations of temporally ambiguous utterances. In the current study, we investigated whether the pace of life, a previously unexplored factor, influences people’s temporal reasoning at city level and individual level. Results showed that participants with a slow pace of life tended to adopt the Moving Ego perspective than participants with a fast pace of life. The current research offers a new perspective that individual differences such as the pace of life may also influence the resolution of temporally ambiguous language.

Moving-Time and Moving-Ego Metaphors from a Translational and a Contrastive-Linguistic Perspective

This article is concerned with some cross-linguistic asymmetries in the use of two types of time metaphors, the Moving-Time and the Moving-Ego metaphor. The latter metaphor appears to be far less well-entrenched in languages such as Croatian or Hungarian, i.e. some of its lexicalizations are less natural than their alternatives based on the Moving-Time metaphor, while some others are, unlike their English models, downright unacceptable. It is argued that some of the differences can be related to the status of the fictive motion construction and some restrictions on the choice of verbs in that construction.

Power in time: The influence of power posing on metaphoric perspectives on time

abstractIn English, the Moving Ego metaphor conceptualizes the ego as moving forward through time and the Moving Time metaphor construes time as moving forward toward the ego. Recent research has provided evidence that people’s metaphorical perspectives on deictic time may be influenced by experiences—both spatial and non-spatial—that are connected to approach motivations (Moving Ego) and avoidance motivations (Moving Time). We extend this research further, asking whether there are differences in preferred temporal perspective between those who exhibit higher and lower degrees of power, as high power has been connected to approach motivations and low power, to avoidance motivations. Across two temporal tasks, participants in our study who adopted high-power poses demonstrated a greater preference for the Moving Ego perspective, compared to those adopting low-power poses. These results suggest an embodied connection between approach and avoidance motivations and the Moving Ego and Moving Time metaphors, respectively.

The top trumps of time: factors motivating the resolution of temporal ambiguity

abstractWhat factors motivate our understanding of metaphoric statements about time? English exhibits two deictic space–time metaphors: the Moving Ego metaphor conceptualizes the ego as moving forward through time, while the Moving Time metaphor conceptualizes time as moving forward towards the ego (Clark, 1973). In addition to earlier research investigating spatial influences on temporal reasoning (e.g., Boroditsky & Ramscar, 2002), recent lines of research have provided evidence that a complex of factors, such as personality differences, event valence, lifestyle, and emotional experiences, may also influence people’s perspectives on the movement of events in time – providing new insights on metaphor and its ability to reflect thought and feeling (e.g., Duffy & Feist, 2014; Duffy, Feist, & McCarthy, 2014; Margolies & Crawford, 2008; Richmond, Wilson, & Zinken, 2012). Probing these findings further, two studies were conducted to investigate whether the interpretation of a temporally ambiguous question may arise from an interaction between the valence of the event and aspects of the personality (Experiment 1) and lifestyle (Experiment 2) of the comprehender. The findings we report on shed further light on the complex nature of temporal reasoning. While this involves conceptual metaphor, it also invokes more complex temporal frames of reference (t-FoRs) (Evans, 2013), which are only partially subserved by space-to-time conceptual metaphors.

Moving Through Time: The Role of Personality in Three Real‐Life Contexts

In English, two deictic space-time metaphors are in common usage: the Moving Ego metaphor conceptualizes the ego as moving forward through time and the Moving Time metaphor conceptualizes time as moving forward toward the ego (Clark, 1973). Although earlier research investigating the psychological reality of these metaphors has typically examined spatial influences on temporal reasoning (e.g., Boroditsky & Ramscar, 2002), recent lines of research have extended beyond this, providing initial evidence that personality differences and emotional experiences may also influence how people reason about events in time (Duffy & Feist, 2014; Hauser, Carter, & Meier, 2009; Richmond, Wilson, & Zinken, 2012). In this article, we investigate whether these relationships have force in real life. Building on the effects of individual differences in self-reported conscientiousness and procrastination found by Duffy and Feist (2014), we examined whether, in addition to self-reported conscientiousness and procrastination, there is a relationship between conscientious and procrastinating behaviors and temporal perspective. We found that participants who adopted the Moving Time perspective were more likely to exhibit conscientious behaviors, while those who adopted the Moving Ego perspective were more likely to procrastinate, suggesting that the earlier effects reach beyond the laboratory.

Individual differences in the interpretation of ambiguous statements about time

AbstractWhat factors influence the ways in which people resolve ambiguity? In English, two contrasting perspectives are implicit in deictic temporal expressions: the Moving Time metaphor conceptualizes time as moving forward towards the ego and the Moving Ego metaphor conceptualizes the ego as moving forward towards the future (Clark 1973). We examine the ambiguity arising from these two conceptualizations, claimed to be equally likely in a “neutral” context (Boroditsky and Ramscar 2002). Whereas previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to a spatial situation related to one interpretation may influence the resolution of the ambiguity (e.g. Boroditsky 2000; Nunez 2007), we focus on the lifestyle and personality factors of the participants as potential additional influences on ambiguity resolution in the interpretation of temporal metaphors. Experiment 1 asks whether lifestyle might influence an individual's approach to time and resulting resolution of temporal ambiguity, comparing preferred responses from two groups of participants with very different demands on the structuring of time: university students and administrators. We observed a difference between the two groups, with administrators more frequently adopting the Moving Time perspective and students, the Moving Ego perspective. Experiment 2 examines personality-related differences, focusing specifically on individual differences in procrastination (Lay 1986) and conscientiousness (John 1990). We observed a significant effect with participants who adopted the Moving Ego perspective reporting higher procrastination scores and lower conscientiousness scores than participants who adopted the Moving Time perspective. Experiment 3 investigates further personality-related differences, focusing specifically on individual differences in extroversion (John 1990). We observed a relationship between extroversion and disambiguation responses, with participants who adopted the Moving Ego perspective evidencing higher levels of extroversion. Taken together, the results from these three studies suggest that individual differences in lifestyle and personality may influence people's perspectives on the movement of events in time and their concomitant interpretation of temporally ambiguous utterances, precluding a universal “neutral” context within which language is interpreted.

The TIME AS SPACE Metaphor in English and in French: A Cognitive Analysis

Metaphors were conceived of as a figure of speech whose role consisted in merely ornamenting the language. However, with their seminal book Metaphors we live by (1980), Lakoff and Johnson have revolutionized the conception of metaphors by placing them as central to human language, thought and action. Cognitive linguists argue that humans tend to conceptualize abstract concepts, such as time, through more experiential and tangible concepts. For instance, it has been observed that the abstract concept of time is conceptualized as space in several unrelated languages. According to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), TIME AS SPACE metaphor covers two more specific metaphors: (1) The MOVING TIME metaphor wherein the observer is conceived as a stationary entity, as in The end of the academic year is getting closer, and (2)The TIME AS A LOCATION metaphor wherein times are conceived as stationary points and the observer is conceived as moving relative to these locations, as in We are first approaching the end of the year. This paper aims at probing the validity of the CMT representations of time on the basis of an analysis of time metaphors in two languages: English and French. This analysis is conducted within the framework of CMT. The results corroborate the CMT representations of time, suggesting that in both languages the abstract concept of time is expressed in spatial terms. In English, as in French, time is conceptualized as a moving entity and as having extension in space. In both languages, time can be seen as bounded; therefore, one can perform actions within defined limits of time.

Frames and the experiential basis of the Moving Time metaphor

It is not satisfactory to analyze temporal metaphors such Moving Ego (e.g. We are approaching the end of the year) and Moving Time (e.g. The end of the year is approaching) simply as mappings from SPACE to TIME. In this case, the intuitively obvious experiential basis of Moving Ego leads to a paradox if applied (with suitable adjustments) to Moving Time. Frame analysis makes possible an adequate account of the experiential basis of both metaphors.