Article published in:

Conceptualizations of Time
Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Human Cognitive Processing 52] 2016
► pp. 207–242

Temporal scenery

Experiential bases for deictic concepts of time in East Asian languages

Katsunobu Izutsu | Hokkaido University of Education

Mitsuko Narita Izutsu | Fuji Women's University

The present article analyzes the conceptual patterns of temporal deixis in Ainu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Ryukyuan. It demonstrates that Lakoff and Johnson’s notions ‘moving time’ and ‘moving observer’ are more or less applicable to the five East Asian languages but are not necessarily mutually exclusive conceptions. Deictic expressions of time in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can presuppose both moving time and moving observer, while comparable expressions in Ainu and Ryukyuan, only moving time. It is argued that Chinese, Japanese, and Korean have busier “temporal scenery” for expressions of temporal deixis than Ainu and Ryukyuan do.

Keywords: encounter, directionality, order, time, observer, motion, deixis

Published online: 14 June 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.10izu

References

Arakawa, K.

2003 Ippo Susunda Chuugokugo Bunpoo [A Chinese grammar one step advanced]. Tokyo: Taishukan.

Asai, T.

1969 Ainugo no bunpoo: Ainugo Ishikari hoogen bunpoo no gairyaku [An Ainu grammar: an overview of the Ishikari dialect]. In Ainu Bunka Hozon Taisaku Kyogikai (ed.), Ainu Minzokushi [Ainu ethnography] (pp. 771–800). Tokyo: Daiichi Hoki.

Bybee, J.L., & Dahl, Ö.

1989 The Creation of Tense and Aspect Systems in the Languages of the World. Studies in Language 13–1, 51–103.

Bybee, J., Perkins, R., & Pagliuca, W.

1994 The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Chiri, M.

2000 Wajin wa Fune o Kuu [Japanese people eat ships]. Sapporo: Hokkaido Shuppan Kikaku Senta.

Comrie, B.

1976 Aspect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

1985 Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Handa, I.

1999 Ryuukyuugo Jiten: Naha Shuri o chuushin to suru Okinawa Kooikigo Junkyo [A Ryukyuan dictionary: Based on broad areas centered around Naha and Shuri]. Tokyo: Daigaku Shorin.

Hattori, S.

1959 Nihongo no Keitoo [Genealogy of the Japanese language]. Tokyo: Iwanami.

(ed.) 1964 Ainugo Hoogen Jiten [A dialectal dictionary of Ainu]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

Hokama, S.

1999 Umi o Wataru Kamigami: Shi to Saisei no Genkyoo Shinkoo [Gods crossing seas: Belief in ancient scenery of death and revival]. Tokyo: Kadokawa.

Kadowaki, S., Takashima, Y., Matsuo, I., & Yutani, Y.

(eds.) 1993 Choosengo Jiten [A Korean dictionary]. Tokyo: Shogakukan (and Seoul Geumseong Chulpansa).

Kim, M.

1997 Urimal Eoweon Sajeon [An etymological dictionary of our language]. Seoul: Taehagsa.

Kim, S.

1992 Gugeo eui Sang Yeongu [An aspectual study of the national language]. Seoul: Hanshin Munhwasa.

Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkyujo

(ed.) 1963 Okinawago Jiten [An Okinawan dictionary]. The Finance Ministry of Japan.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.

1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.

Langacker, R.W.

1987 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar volume I: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

1991 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar volume II: Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Lee, K.

1993 A Korean Grammar on a Semantic-Pragmatic Principles. Seoul: Hankwuk Munhwasa.

Li, C.N., & Thompson, S.A.

1981 Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Maeda, T.

(ed.) 2005 Nihongo Gogen Daijiten [An etymological dictionary of Japanese]. Tokyo: Shogakukan.

Matsumoto, Y.

1996 Subjective Motion and English and Japanese Verbs. Cognitive Linguistics 7: 183–226.

Moore, K.E.

2011 Ego-perspective and Field-based Frames of Reference: Temporal Meanings of front in Japanese, Wolof, and Aymara. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 759–776.

Núñez, R.E., & Sweetser, E.

2006 With the Future behind them: Convergent Evidence from Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time. Cognitive Science 30, 401–450.

Okinawa Kogo Daijiten Henshu Iinkai (OKDHI)

(ed.) 1995 Okinawa Kogo Daijiten [An unabridged dictionary of Classical Okinawan]. Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten.

Ono, S., Satake, A., & Maeda, K.

(eds.) 1990 Iwanami Kogo Jiten [Iwanami’s dictionary of Classical Japanese]. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.

Refsing, K.

1994 Tense, Aspect and Actionality in the Ainu Language. In Bache, C., Basbøll, H., & Lindberg, C.-E. (eds.), Tense, Aspect and Action: Empirical and Theoretical Contributions to Language Typology (pp. 311–321). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Shibatani, M.

1990 The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2003 Directional Verbs in Japanese. In Shay, E., & Seibert, U. (eds.), Motion, Direction, and Location in Languages: In Honor of Zygmunt Frajzyngier (pp. 259–286). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Shinohara, K., & Pardeshi, P.

2011 The More in Front, the Later: The Role of Positional Terms in Time Metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 749–758.

Shinzato, R.

1984 Epistemology in Linguistics: A Case Study from Japanese and Okinawan. Doctoral Dissertation. The University of Hawaii.

Sohn, H.-M.

1999 The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Talmy, L.

2000 Fictive Motion in Language and “Ception”. In Toward a Cognitive Semantics. Volume I: Concept Structuring Systems (pp. 99–175). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Tamura, S.

1996 Ainugo Saru Hoogen Jiten [An Ainu dictionary of the Saru dialect]. Tokyo: Sofukan.

Yorifuji, A., Ogawa, F., & Miyake, T.

(eds.) 2003 Chuu Nichi Jiten [A Chinese-Japanese dictionary]. Tokyo: Shogakukan and Beijin: Běijīng Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn.