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Conceptualizations of Time
Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Human Cognitive Processing 52] 2016
► pp. 85–102

Western Conception of Time in Signed Languages: a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

The chapter builds on previous research into the concept of time in signed languages (Brennan 1983; Wilcox 2000; Taub 2001; Sutton-Spence and Woll 2010). Relying on the framework of the second generation cognitive linguistics (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), it discusses the key elements of the Western view of time as expressed in American, British, Polish, and other signed languages. Signs based on metaphors, metonymies, and interactions of these two conceptual mechanisms represent the conception of time rooted in classical physics (Newton 1729), the paradigm of life sciences (McGrath and Kelly 1986), and the efficiency-oriented concept of work (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). They reflect time’s linearity and cyclicity, its division into homogenous units, and its use as an economic resource.

Keywords: cyclicity, metaphor, metonymy, time line
Published online: 14 June 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.05kos
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