A Study of Space – Time Conceptual Metaphor in English= Nghiên cứu ẩn dụ ý niệm không gian - thời gian trong tiếng Anh (Chương trình loại 1). M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

ABSTRACT This study investigates into the space - time conceptual metaphor in English, which the abstract domain of time gets its relational structure from the more concrete domain of sp

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG NHUNG

A STUDY OF SPACE – TIME CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH Nghiên cứu ẩn dụ ý niệm không gian – thời gian trong tiếng Anh

(Chương trình loại 1)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: Linguistics Code: 60220201

HÀ NỘI – 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*****************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG NHUNG

A STUDY OF SPACE – TIME CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH Nghiên cứu ẩn dụ ý niệm không gian – thời gian trong tiếng Anh

(Chương trình loại 1)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

HÀ NỘI – 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On completion of this thesis, I am indebted to many people

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof Nguyễn Hoà for helping me complete this study This paper would not be finished without his valuable advice, guidance and support His useful suggestions and valuable critical feedback encouraged me during the process of conducting this study

Much gratitude also go to all my lecturers and officers from Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, who facilitated the best possible conditions during

my whole course of studying

I also would like to show my warmest thanks to my friends who encouraged and assisted me a lot At the same time, their valuable comments and criticism are extremely important and helpful during the process of writing this paper

Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents and my brothers for their love, care and encouragement

Hanoi, 2017

Nguyen Thi Phuong Nhung

ABSTRACT

This study investigates into the space - time conceptual metaphor in English, which the abstract domain of time gets its relational structure from the more concrete domain of space through metaphorical mappings The research

focuses on two spatial prepositions before and behind in the light of cognitive

perspective Hence, the meanings of these two particles are clarified through the analysed image schemas and two moving models The spatial orientation has an important impact on human thought and our understanding of time as the domains of space and time do share conceptual structure, thus how people conceptualize spatial information affects people’s thinking of temporal

information It is suggested that the spatial models of before, behind are also

useful to the mappings between space and time, from which the ego-moving and

time-moving models of before, behind are developed From the analysis and

discussion based on data source, limitations and recommendations for further

studies were included in this research

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the research 1

2 Aims of the research 1

3 Research question 2

4 Data source 2

5 Scope of the research 2

6 Significance of the research 2

7 Organization of the research 2

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Definition of term (key constructs) 4

1.2 Theoretical background 5

1.2.1 The conceptual nature of meaning 5

1.2.2 Metaphor: 6

1.3 Conceptual metaphor Time as Space: 7

Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY 10

2.1 Research method 10

2.2 How to determine distinct senses 11

Chapter 3 – ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 14

3.1 Analysis 14

3.2 Discussion 30

PART C: CONCLUSION 34

1 Summary 34

2 Implication 34

3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 35

REFERENCES 37

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES

Fig 1: Image schema of before in Eg 1 14

Fig 2: Image schema of before in Eg 2 15

Fig 3: Image schema of before in Eg 3 16

Fig 4: Image schema of before in Eg 4 16

Fig 5: Image schema of before in Eg 5 12

Fig 6: Image schema of before in Eg 6 18

Fig 7: Image schema of before in Eg 7 18

Fig 8: Image schema of behind in Eg 8 10

Fig 9: Image schema of behind in Eg 9 20

Fig 10: Image schema of behind in Eg 10 21

Fig 11: Image schema of behind in Eg 11 21

Fig 12: Ego-moving and Object-moving models 22

Table 1: Space-time correspondences in English 24

Fig 13: Image schema of Ego-moving model from space to time 25

Fig 14: Image schema of Time-moving model from space to time 26

Table 2: Examples of Ego-moving and Time-moving metaphors with preposition 'before, behind' 27

Fig 15: Ego-moving model of before from space to time 27

Fig 16: Ego-moving model of behind from space to time 28

Fig 17: Time-moving model of before from space to time 29

Fig 18: Time-moving model of behind from space to time 30

PART A: INTRODUCTION

In this part, the researcher will present the rationale of the study, the aims, the research questions, the data source, the scope, the significance, and the organization of the study

1 Rationale for the research

Many researches have shown that people often talk about time in terms of

space Spatial expressions used here can be verbs (as we approach the end of the year, the coming month) or prepositions (in the days ahead of us, the worst is behind us) That people rely on the domain of space to conceptualize time such as: we are handing in our MA thesis before time, approaching the viva voce, or falling behind schedule means they are using space-time conceptual metaphor

(metaphor Time as Space) Playing an important role in conceptualizing time as

space, the spatial prepositions (in, on, at, before, ahead of, behind, etc.) have been subject to many linguistic studies and thesis Of these, ‘in, on, at’ have been discussed in lots of articles and studies, while ‘before, behind’ have

received less linguists and researchers’ attention When people stand between the worst days and the best days, can it be said that “the best day is before them”

or “the best day is behind them”? How can people determine which statement is the best appropriate? Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate

two spatial prepositions ‘before, behind’ in detail that how they reason time from

cognitive perspective

2 Aims of the research

The study is carried out to discover another aspect of metaphor Time as

Space in which the spatial schemas of two spatial prepositions ‘before, behind’

are clarified Moreover, the research explores how these spatial schemas affect time conceptualization From those analysis, the mechanism the temporal statements using these spatial prepositions are interpreted

3 Research question

The Research Question is: ‘How do the spatial prepositions before, behind conceptualize time?’, which is clarified through three sub-questions:

➢ What are the spatial schemas of before, behind?

➢ How do these spatial schemas affect time reasoning?

➢ By which mechanism the temporal statements using these spatial prepositions are interpreted?

4 Data source

The data in this study is collected from English books and stories

which two prepositions before and behind sometimes appear and are used as

spatial and temporal particles

5 Scope of the research

Many studies have been done in the field of metaphor Time as Space The subjects also vary from verbs to prepositions Within the limit of researcher’s personal ability and source of reference materials, this study

focuses on two spatial prepositions: before, behind used as expressions of time

6 Significance of the research

The research has significance on improving the understanding about cognitive linguistics in general and conceptual metaphor in particular, raising people’s awareness of the time reasoning, helping to figure out how people perceive the time when they use spatial expression, promoting knowledge about the certain subjects of the metaphor Time as Space, discovering and obtaining the motion models of specifically spatial-temporal expressions

(before, behind) Besides, the research is also a useful material source for

further studies, a necessary supplementary document for learning and teaching English prepositions

7 Organization of the research

Part I: Introduction, presents the rationale of the study, the objectives,

the scope, the method, the significance and the organization of the study

Part II: Development, includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature Review, reviews the theories of metaphor, conceptual metaphor Time as Space, and related previous studies on the metaphor Time as Space

Chapter 2: Methodology, describes the research method Moreover, this chapter gives detailed theoretical framework on metaphor Time as Space and shows two models for conceptualizing time

Chapter 3: Analysis and discussion, analyzes meaning network of two

particles before and behind; analyzes two conceptual models of two prepositions behind, before, followed by discussion of findings

Part III: Conclusion, gives the summary of the research, its implications,

limitations and suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is divided into three major sections The first section provides definition of some key terms The second section represents the theoretical background to nature of meaning, metaphor and conceptual metaphor The third section focuses on related previous studies on conceptual metaphor Time as Space

1.1 Definition of term (key constructs)

Concept: The general idea or meaning which is associated with a word or

symbol in a person’s mind (“Longman dictionary of Language teaching and applied linguistics” (1992))

Conceptualization (Construal): The way in which people perceive,

comprehend, and interpret the word around them (“Longman dictionary of Language teaching and applied linguistics” (1992))

Conceptual metaphor: The understanding of one range of concepts (the target

domain) in term of another (the source domain) (“Longman dictionary of Language teaching and applied linguistics” (1992))

Time-moving system: A time-line is conceived of as a river or conveyor belt on

which events are moving from the future to the past (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)

Ego-moving system: Ego or the observer’s context progresses along the

time-line (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980)

Image Schema: An image schema is a recurring structure within our cognitive

processes which establishes patterns of understanding and reasoning (Mark Johnson, 1987) Image schemas are formed from our bodily interactions, from linguistic experience, and from historical context An image schema is a generalized, primitive mental abstraction used in reasoning to associate percepts with concepts

Landmark (LM): entity with respect to which some other entity moves

Trajector (TR): entity that moves with respect to a (relatively) stationary

1.2 Theoretical background

1.2.1 The conceptual nature of meaning

Words constitute lexical forms that are conventionally paired with meanings, and that these form-meaning pairings are stored in a mental dictionary

or lexicon The meanings of this set of words are clearly grounded at some level

in our spatio-physical interaction with the world The various meanings associated with spatial particles are related in systematic and highly motivated ways In other words, we advance a polysemy approach to word meaning, arguing that the multiple, distinct meanings associated with the same lexical form are often related We suggest that the distinct but related senses associated with a single spatial particle constitute a semantic network organized with respect to a primary sense It has been widely assumed that meaning derives from the fact that language refers directly to the world The means whereby language ‘matches up’ with the world has relied on the notion of truth

According to the cognitive scientist Gilles Fauconnier, when language expressions reflect objective events and situations, as they often do, they do not

reflect them directly, but rather through elaborate human cognitive constructions and construals’ Jackendoff has also supported that one of the most important insights to emerge from the work on perception is that our perceptions of the world are determined largely by conceptual organization being imposed on senseperceptory input That is, what we directly experience is not an objectively real world Rather, what we experience as everyday reality is mediated and shaped by human conceptual organization to which we necessarily and unconsciously subject sense-perceptory input

In general, the patterns and organization we perceive as reality do not in fact exist independently of the world itself, but are largely the result of our cognitive processing It is we who perceive it to be of something This is instructive as it demonstrates that although there is a world of sense-perceptory information out there, what we in fact perceive is determined by how we unconsciously organize and hence make sense of the input

1.2.2 Metaphor:

Metaphor is said to play an important role in our conceptual structuring processes In particular, it is noticed that certain experiential metaphors which base on the feeling of spatial relations are available in people’s conceptual system In recent years another opinion has shown that metaphor plays a crucial role in the acquisition of new conceptual structure (Lakoff and Johnson 1980; Martin 1990) From this, language is considered as metaphorical in nature; besides, metaphor is offered a main role in the development of conceptual structure Lakoff and Johnson (1980) have convinced that people’s conceptual network is basically structured by core metaphors; for example, that abstract concepts like feeling, are metaphorically structured by concrete spatial concepts such as orientation (e.g., happiness is up and sadness is down)

1.3 Conceptual metaphor Time as Space:

Given by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (in Metaphors We live by),

conceptual metaphor theory represents a well-developed theory from the research method of cognitive linguistics This theory is an approach to conceptual organization and structure which has been influential in cognitive science That the concept generating is motivated by conceptual metaphors forms the central idea of conceptual metaphor theory Conceptual metaphors map inferential structure between two distinct conceptual domain (time and space, for instance) This kind of metaphor allows people to structure or perceive one more abstract domain (time) in terms of a more concrete domain (space) (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, Lakoff 2000) This certain relationship can be expressed as ‘Time is Space’ that time as the motion of objects, and time as a

‘passage’

With respect to this metaphor, scholars have come to a general conclusion that there is a difference between moving-time and moving-ego metaphors (Clark, 1973; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Genter, 2001; Evans, 2003) In the first one, it is not the observer, but the temporal events that move from future to past while with moving-ego, the observer stands in the time-line and moves to the fixed future time events

Beside some veteran linguists such as George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Vyvyan Evans, Günter Radden has obtained significant achievements in

cognition field The study ‘The Metaphor TIME AS SPACE across Languages’

by Gunter is carried out across many languages such as English, French, Chinese, Italian and German, in which time is investigated with six dimensions: dimensionality of time, orientation of the time-line, shape of time-line, position

of times relative to the observer, sequences of time units and motion of time It is noticeable here that the motion of time is conceptualized in the moving-time and moving-ego models according to whether time or observer moves in time-line

However, that the motion model of certain verbs and prepositions used in metaphor time as space is not discussed in detail

Lera Boroditsky with the article Metaphoric structuring: understanding time through spatial metaphors from the Journal Cognition also reaches an

agreement on the above ideas The linguist again proves that the space and time domains have the same conceptual structure in language through three experiments However, the author claims that thinking about time does not always need spatial schemas when frequent mappings between space and time have been kept in the domain of time The article mentions many spatial

expressions such as in front of, ahead, behind, up, down, before, forward However, prepositions before and behind have not been put on focus yet

In general, metaphors are adopted for describing abstract ideas difficult to perceive through our senses - such as time, love, life, ideas, theories, morality, mind, anger, fear, politics, society, communication, God and religion A target domain of a metaphor is characterized by a number of source domains, as has been widely accepted by researchers working on metaphor like Lakoff & Johnson (1980) and Kövecses (1991) Kövecses (2000, 82) asserts that ‘a source domain contributes not randomly selected but predetermined conceptual materials agreed upon by a community of speakers to the range of target domains to which it applies.’ Metaphor is not merely a decorative device of language, not related to the human thought and culture Rather, metaphor is a central signal that represents the peculiarity of language and culture Time is one

of the most abstract but essential concept in our human life, and each culture has developed different sets of metaphor for the reference of time

Following the seminal work of Lakoff and Johnson (1980), cognitive semanticists claim it is well established in principle that space is used symbolically in the thought processes and languages of most, if not all, people, and that orientational metaphors are widespread in languages, generating related phrases and expressions Grounded in our experiences of interaction with the

world, we understand, for example, that growth is often linked to health and strength

From the studies reviewed, there is a call for further investigations on the

certain spatial expressions such as before, behind and their roles in time

conceptualization

Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the research method chosen to conduct the study and the metaphor Time as Space in general are described

2.1 Research method

Firstly, the researcher analyzes the meaning network of each spatial

preposition (before, behind); Secondly, the researcher analyzes how these

particles are used to express time; depends on the spatial schemas to find out the temporal schemas (Ego-moving and Time-moving) Finally, the researcher analyzes two temporal schemas (Ego-moving and Time-moving)

Lakoff and Johnson (1980:3) state that: "…metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature."

The theoretical assumptions on which the present paper is based are derived from the conceptual theory of metaphor initially developed by Lakoff and Johnson In its broadest sense, the cognitive approach claims that metaphors are pervasive in conventional language and thought

Metaphor is a device with the capacity to structure our conceptual system, providing, at the same time, a particular understanding of the world and a way to make sense of our experience From this point, metaphor is defined by Lakoff

and Nunez (2000:5) as "the mechanism by which the abstract is comprehended

in terms of the concrete."

Lakoff and Johnson believe that the metaphors people use provide information on how they understand things They note that a person's communication is a key source to indicating how that person thinks Not only do metaphors provide a window for people to see another's person conceptual system, metaphors also shape people's conceptual systems Metaphors also

"govern our everyday functioning, down to the most mundane details Our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around the world, and how we relate to other people "

Thus, metaphors play a key role in people's communication and conceptualization A case illustrating what it means for a concept to be metaphorical and for such a concept to structure an everyday activity, is the conceptual metaphor TIME AS SPACE English has many everyday expressions that are grounded on conceptualizing the domain of time in terms of the domain

of space, such as “Look how far we have come We cannot turn back now”

Thus, metaphor involves understanding one domain of experience, time,

in terms of a very different domain of experience, space "Technically, the metaphor can be understood as a mapping from a source domain (in this case, space) to a target domain (in this case, time)"

2.2 How to determine distinct senses

There are many different approaches of how best to model a meaning network, which is to some extent subjective Tyler and Evans (1999) suggested two criteria for determining whether a particular instance of a spatial particle counts as a distinct sense First, to be counted as distinct, a sense must contain additional meaning not apparent in any other senses associated with a particular form, which means that a distinct sense must involve non-spatial meaning or a different configuration between the TR and LM than found in the proto-scene Second, there must be instances of the sense that are context independent, that is,

in which the distinct sense could not be inferred from another sense and the context in which it occurs In order to see how this would work let’s consider the following sentences:

(1) We were walking behind you

(2) The road is behind the house

In the first sentence behind designates a spatial relation in which the TR, coded by we, is located at the back of the LM (you) In the second sentence, behind also designates a spatial relationship in which the TR, the road, is located

at the back of the LM (the house) Thus, neither of the uses of behind in these

two sentences adds additional meaning with respect to each other It can be seen that the same basic TR–LM configuration holds in both and no additional non-spatial meaning is prompted for by one and not the other These two examples of

behind have failed one of the two assessments and cannot be treated as two

In this sentence a non-spatial relation designated by behind, in which the

TR, environmental welfare is less important than other items/problems on the legislative agenda Thus, the meaning of behind appears to be that a lack of

priority and importance represents an additional meaning not apparent in examples such as those in (1) and (2) The fact that the usage in (3) brings additional meaning meets the first assessment criterion for whether this instance counts as a distinct sense

In terms of the second, we must establish whether the lack of priority meaning can be derived from context If it can be, then this instance would fail the second assessment criterion and so could not be a distinct sense Assuming

that behind involves a sense that involves a unique configuration between a TR

and LM and that this configuration involves some sense of the TR being more important than the LM, we see no way that the lack of importance meaning

component associated with behind in (3) can be derived from context The TR, environmental welfare, is not important as the LM, other items As all other

items in legislative programme are typically more important /privileged than environmental welfare, and the president usually pays more attention to other issues than environment welfare

Such an inference is not possible in the example in (1) and (2) as the spatial relation holding between the TR and the LM is one which would

normally be coded by front/back (i.e., we are walking at the back of you) rather than by less important In short, unless we already know that behind has a lack

of priority meaning associated with it, there is no ready contextual means of deriving this meaning in sentences such as (3) and From this, we conclude that

the lack of priority meaning associated with behind in (3) constitutes a distinct

sense

The two assessment criteria may be shown to exclude senses that are legitimately instantiated in the language user’s mental lexicon and hence would have to be adjusted This methodology predicts many of the findings which have already come to light, and hence represents a reasonable approximation for assessing where the line should be drawn between what counts as a distinct sense conventionalized in semantic memory and a contextual inference, produced on-line for the purpose of local understanding The methodology provides a rigorous and relatively consistent way of making judgements as to whether a sense is distinct or not, and provides methodology which can be used

in an inter-subjective way

Chapter 3 – ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the answers to the following questions:

What are the spatial schemas of before, behind?

How do these spatial schemas affect time reasoning?

By which mechanism the temporal statements using these spatial prepositions are interpreted?

3.1 Analysis

Our conceptualization of front versus back references the human body in which the primary organs of the perception are located in the front of the head, the researcher begins this chapter by demonstrating that spatial particles typically have numerous meanings associated with them It is claimed that a subset of interpretations represents those meanings which must be stored in memory, and hence are permanently available, which are termed senses

3.1.1 Meaning network and image schema of ‘before’

The spatial particle before relates historically to Old English beforen/bifuran, glossed as ‘be front’ or ‘ahead’ Fore was a separate preposition

in Old English and meant ‘located at the front of’ Before involves an in tandem configuration developing a ‘located at the front of’ meaning In English, we find

evidence for two competing senses, the Location Sense (involving a TR and an oriented LM) and the In Advance Of Sense involving an in tandem configuration) Consider the following examples:

(Eg 1) A reached the finish line before B

F

(Eg 2) Hannah arrived home before George

Tony George Hannah

Fig 2: Image schema of before in Eg 2

A recurring consequence of two animate, oriented entities being in an in tandem alignment and in motion is that the one in the advance position will encounter other entities first An unavoidable consequence of the two entities being so aligned is that they will encounter other entities sequentially For instance, in a race, with three runners, A, B and C, runner A finishes first, runner

B second and runner C third In such a case, by virtue of A being located in front

of runners B and C, A is sequenced prior to both B and C, and arrives at (or encounters) the finish line prior to, or in advance of, B and C The tight correlation between location and sequence in scenes involving an in tandem alignment has resulted in the strong implicature of sequentiality becoming

associated with before

Similarly, a recurring consequence of two static entities being in an in tandem alignment is that a person approaching the static entities would encounter them sequentially So, if three people, Tony, George, Hannah, are standing in line, one behind the other, and a fourth person, Katherine, approaches from the front of the line, Katherine will encounter the three in sequential order

Katherine Tony George Hannah