Cover not available
Part of
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
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.05kos
References
Armstrong, D.F
1999 Original Signs: Gesture, Sign, and the Sources of Language. Washington, DC: The Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Brennan, M
1983 Marking Time in BSL. In J.G. Kyle & B. Woll (eds.), Language in Sign: An International Perspective on Sign Language (pp. 10–31). London: Crook Helm.Google Scholar
Duke, I
2009 The Everything Sign Language Book: American Sign Language Made Easy. Avon, MA: Adams Media.Google Scholar
Emmorey, K
2002 Language, Cognition, and the Brain: Insights from Sign Language Research. Mahwah, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
ESLC/European Sign Language Centre
Sign Language Dictionary. Available at: [URL] Accessed 12 May 2015.
Evans, V., & Green, M
2006 Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Fass, D.C
1997 Processing Metonymy and Metaphor. Greenwich, CT & London: Ablex.Google Scholar
Goossens, L
1990 Metaphtonymy: The Interaction of Metaphor and Metonymy in Expressions for Linguistic Action. Cognitive Linguistics 1(3), 323–340. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grzymska, A
2008 Kognitywne ujęcie metafor w PJM. In E. Twardowska (ed.), Stan badań nad Polskim Językiem Migowym (pp. 87–95). Łódź: Polski Związek Głuchych Oddział Łódzki.Google Scholar
Guralnik, D.B
(ed.) 1986 Webster’s New World Dictionary of American Language. New York: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Hall, E.T
1981 The Silent Language. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Janda, L
2007 From Cognitive Linguistics to Cultural Linguistics. Word and Sense: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Theory and Criticism in Czech Studies 8, 48–68.Google Scholar
Koch, P
1999 Frames and Contiguity: On the Cognitive Bases of Metonymy and Certain Types of Word Formation. In K.–U. Panther & G. Radden (eds.), Metonymy in Language and Thought (pp. 136–167). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kosecki, K
2005 On the Part-Whole Configuration and Multiple Construals of Salience within a Simple Lexeme. Łódź: The Łódź University Press.Google Scholar
Kosiba, O., & Grenda, P
2011 Leksykon języka migowego. Bogatynia, Poland: Silentium.Google Scholar
Kövecses, Z
2005 Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G
1987 Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M
1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lane, L
1990 Gallaudet Survival Guide to Signing. Washington, DC: The Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, R.W
1987 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford, CA: The Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
McGrath, J., & Kelly, J.R
1986 Time and Human Interaction: Towards a Social Psychology of Time. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Neugebauer, O
1969 The Exact Science in Antiquity. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Newton, I
1729 The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. London: At Middle-Temple-Gate, Fleet Street.Google Scholar
North, J
2006 God’s Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Polański, K
(ed.) 1993 Encyklopedia językoznawstwa ogólnego. Wrocław: Ossolineum.Google Scholar
Radden, G
2011 Spatial Time in the West and the East. In M. Brdar et al. (eds.), Space and Time in Language (pp. 1–40). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Radden, G., & Kövecses, Z
1999 Towards a Theory of Metonymy. In K.-U. Panther & G. Radden (eds.), Metonymy in Language and Thought (pp. 17–59). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roudet, L
1921 Sur la classification psychologique des changements sémantiques. Journal de psychologie normale et pathologique 18, 676–692.Google Scholar
Smith, C
2010 Sign Language Companion: A Handbook of British Signs. London: Souvenir Press.Google Scholar
Sutton-Spence, R., & Woll, B
2010 The Linguistics of British Sign Language: An Introduction. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Taub, S.F
2001 Language in the Body: Iconicity and Metaphor in American Sign Language. Cambridge: The Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, J.R
1989 Linguistic Categorisation: Prototypes in Linguistic Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, P.P
2000 Metaphor in American Sign Language. Washington, DC: The Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Wilcox, S
2008 Signed Languages. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 1113–1136). Oxford: The Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zwart, P.J
1976 About Time: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin and Nature of Time. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Li, Heng
2022. Worrying about your future. Pragmatics & Cognition 29:1 ► pp. 160 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.