Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning
Methods and Issues in the Study of Spatial Construals of Time
People use space to structure their thoughts about time (e.g. Núñez &
Cooperrider 2013). In this chapter, we first provide a brief overview of the various
ways that we use space to talk, gesture, and reason about deictic and sequence time. We then discuss the strengths and limitations of the different
methodologies used to study space-time associations. We argue that some
methods are especially useful for documenting the existence of spatial construals
of time, while others are more useful for examining their flexibility. We illustrate
this point by describing circumstances under which temporal reasoning
diverges from patterns in both language and gesture.
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Yang, Wenxing, Jiaqi Dong, Ruidan Bi, Jian Gu & Xueqin Feng
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