Moore K.E. The Spatial Language of Time: Metaphor, metonymy, and frames of reference

Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2014. — 366 p. — (Human Cognitive Processing). — ISBN10: 9027223963; ISBN13: 978-9027223968.The Spatial Language of Time presents a crosslinguistically valid state-of-the-art analysis of space-to-time metaphors, using data mostly from English and Wolof (Africa) but additionally from Japanese and other languages. Metaphors are analyzed in terms of their most direct motivation by basic human experiences (Grady 1997a; Lakoff & Johnson 1980). This motivation explains the crosslinguistic appearance of certain metaphors, but does not say anything about temporal metaphor systems that deviate from the types documented here. Indeed, we observe interesting culture- and language-specific metaphor phenomena. Refining earlier treatments of temporal metaphor and adapting to temporal experience Levinson’s (2003) idea of frames of reference, the author proposes a contrast between perspective-neutral and perspective-specific frames of reference in temporal metaphor that has important crosslinguistic ramifications for the temporal semantics of FRONT/BEHIND expressions. This book refines the cognitive-linguistic approach to temporal metaphor by analyzing the extensive temporal structure in what has been considered the source domain of space, and showing how temporal metaphors can be better understood by downplaying the space-time dichotomy and analyzing metaphor structure in terms of conceptual frames. This book is of interest to linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and others who may have wondered about relationships between space and time.Temporal metaphor and ego’s perspectiveIntroduction: Talking about time as if it were space
The deictic nature of Moving Ego and Ego-centered Moving Time expressions
The experiential bases (grounding, motivation) of Moving Ego and Ego-centered Moving Time
From earlier to later
Frame of reference and alternate construals of ego-centered timePerspectival neutralityA field-based frame of reference
The psychological reality of sequence is relative position on a path
Illustrating the field-based/ego-perspective contrast: The case of sequence is relative position in a stack
Space-to-time metonymyThe temporal semantics of in-front and behindThe contrasting front/behind schemas of sequence is relative position on a path and Moving Ego
The crosslinguistic pairing of in-front and behind with ‘earlier’ and ‘later’
The alignment of ego with a field-based frame of reference
When back is not the opposite of front: A temporal relative frame of reference in Wolof
The Ego-opposed temporal metaphor and contexts of shared perspective
Modes of construal of front and behind
In search of primary metaphors of timeLocation without translational motionExpressions of static temporal “location”
Beyond metaphor and metonymy: Mental spaces and conceptual integration
Other-centered Moving Time and Wolof fekk ‘become co-located with’
Times as bounded regionsFundamentally different temporal conceptsHaving and wasting Wolof counterparts of timeConclusions