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Conceptualizations of Time
Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Human Cognitive Processing 52] 2016
► pp. 43–66

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.

Keywords: deictic time, gesture, language, reasoning, sequence time, spatial construals of time
Published online: 14 June 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.03wal
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