The Role of Cultural Artifacts in the Interpretation of Metaphorical Expressions About Time

Duffy, Sarah E.

doi:10.1080/10926488.2014.889989

Cited by 39 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Interview responses for time suggest that timelines motivated many horizontal responses to this task. These qualitative results align with studies demonstrating the influence of cultural artifacts on spatial-temporal mappings ( Tversky et al, 1991 ; Fuhrman and Boroditsky, 2010 ; Bergen and Chan Lau, 2012 ; Duffy, 2014 ). For the vague quantity words, several interview responses contained references to environmental factors, such as the correlation between quantity and height in the real world (e.g., containers filling up with liquid), and these participants were also more likely to have responded vertically.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The durability of this vertical quantity association may be due to its purportedly embodied origins in environmental correlations (e.g., Lakoff, 1987 ; Fischer and Brugger, 2011 ; Winter et al, 2015a ), which participants consistently referenced in their interview responses to the quantity task across Experiments 1, 2, and 4. In contrast, many participants stated that cultural representations such as timelines, clocks and number lines influenced their responses to the time and exact numerals task (see also Duffy, 2014 ). These cultural representations arguably have more in common with the visual placing of words required in our tasks, which could explain how the tasks themselves were able to shift participants’ responses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Placing Abstract Concepts in Space: Quantity, Time and Emotional Valence

Woodin

Winter

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Research has shown that abstract concepts are often conceptualized along horizontal and vertical axes. However, there are mixed results concerning which axis is preferred for which type of conceptual domain. For instance, it has been suggested that the vertical axis may be preferred for quantity in tasks using linguistic stimuli (e.g., ‘more,’ ‘less’), whereas numerals (e.g., ‘1,’ ‘2,’ ‘3’) may be more prone to horizontal conceptualization. In this study, we used a task with free response options to see where participants would place quantity words (‘most,’ ‘more,’ ‘less,’ ‘least’), numerals (‘2,’ ‘4,’ ‘7,’ ‘9’), time words (‘past,’ ‘future,’ ‘earliest,’ ‘earlier,’ ‘later,’ ‘latest’) and emotional valence words (‘best,’ ‘better,’ ‘worse,’ ‘worst’). We find that for quantity words, the vertical axis was preferred; whereas for numerals, participants preferred the horizontal axis. For time concepts, participants preferred the horizontal axis; and for emotional valence, they preferred the vertical axis. Across all tasks, participants tended to use specific axes (horizontal, vertical), rather than combining these two axes in diagonal responses. These results shed light on the spatial nature of abstract thought.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Placing Abstract Concepts in Space: Quantity, Time and Emotional Valence

Woodin

Winter

2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Similarly, Matlock, Holmes, Srinivasan, and Ramscar () show that the experience of “forward” abstract motion, as in counting upwards from 1 to 5, primes Friday responses. Adding to this, Duffy () also found that using a calendar—which involves reading an implicit timeline left‐to‐right—to answer the test question primes an ME interpretation of the question. As a whole, this body of evidence suggests that the motion inherent in reading may also play a factor in understanding the test question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wednesday's Meeting Really Is on Friday: A Meta‐Analysis and Evaluation of Ambiguous Spatiotemporal Language

Stickles

Lewis

2017

Cognitive Science

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Experimental work has shown that spatial experiences influence spatiotemporal metaphor use. In these studies, participants are asked a question that yields different responses depending on the metaphor participants use. It has been claimed that English speakers are equally likely to respond with either variant in the absence of priming. Related studies testing non-spatial experiences demonstrate varied results with a wide range of primes. Here, the effects of eye movement and stimuli presentation modality on comprehension of this question are investigated in different formats. In addition, the results of prior reported controls are re-analyzed in a meta-analysis to verify reliable ambiguity of the test question. Results suggest that English speakers have a baseline preference for the Moving Ego metaphor variant, with a stronger preference in verbal rather than written presentation. The findings have implications both for (re)interpretation of prior studies' results and future study designs.

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“…The use of spatial language to express temporal concepts is documented in languages throughout the world (Haspelmath, 1997). The spatialization of time is also evident in co-speech gesture (Núñez & Sweetser, 2006;Casasanto & Jasmin, 2012;Cooperrider & Núñez, 2009;Cooperrider et al, in press), in non-linguistic cognitive tasks (Casasanto & Boroditsky, 2008;Casasanto, 2010Casasanto, , 2016Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010;Bender & Beller, 2014) and in symbolic cognitive artefacts (Sinha et al, 2011;Núñez & Cooperrider, 2013;Duffy, 2014). The ubiquity of such space-time mapping has led to claims for the universality of the conceptual metaphor TIME IS SPACE (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999;Fauconnier & Turner, 2008).…”

Section: Time As Space In Language and Thoughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sequential Time Construal is Primary in Temporal Uses of Mandarin Chinese qian ‘front’ and hou ‘back’

Yang¹,

Sinha²,

Filipović³

2020

Preprint

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We address two unresolved puzzles regarding the relationship between temporal and spatial conceptualizations in Mandarin Chinese. First, apparently conflicting data have led to disagreement over whether temporal usages of the terms qian ‘front’ and hou ‘back’ are based on a schema of Ego facing towards past or towards future. Second, which of the sagittal, vertical and lateral orientational axes is more fundamental in Mandarin spatio-temporal language and cognition has been much debated. We review these controversies, propose new analyses and report four experiments. Our findings are consistent with the primacy in Mandarin Chinese of the invariant Sequential Time construal of the terms qian ‘front’ (EARLIER) and hou ‘back’ (LATER) over their contextually governed Deictic Time reference to pastness and futurity. We find also that the preferred lexicalization of temporal relations between events by Mandarin speakers involves the sagittal axis terms qian and hou, but this preference does not hold for non-linguistic representations of event sequences. Finally, our data suggest that the temporal meanings of qian and hou (‘earlier’ and ‘later’) are more salient for Mandarin speakers than their spatial meanings (‘front’ and ‘back’) in motion event conceptualizations.

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The Role of Cultural Artifacts in the Interpretation of Metaphorical Expressions About Time

Cited by 39 publications

References 50 publications

Placing Abstract Concepts in Space: Quantity, Time and Emotional Valence

Placing Abstract Concepts in Space: Quantity, Time and Emotional Valence

Wednesday's Meeting Really Is on Friday: A Meta‐Analysis and Evaluation of Ambiguous Spatiotemporal Language

Sequential Time Construal is Primary in Temporal Uses of Mandarin Chinese qian ‘front’ and hou ‘back’

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