Publications

Publication details [#1890]

Aparta, Krystian. 2006. Conventional models of time and their extensions in science fiction. Kraków, Poland. 118 pp.

Abstract

This thesis overviews conventional conceptual models of TIME, as described by cognitive linguistics, as well as the novel extensions of conventional models of TIME found in science fiction. The first chapter presents an overview of conceptual metaphor theory and a discussion of conventional metaphorical models of TIME, such as the MOVING TIME and MOVING OBSERVER metaphors. Chapter two provides an outline of conceptual blending theory, and presents a conceptual blending account of the structure of conventional models of TIME. The third chapter contains a discussion of the role of episodic memory, mental time travel, and conventional models of LOCATION and CHANGE OF LOCATION in the conceptualization of the MOVEMENT IN TIME, as well as a conceptual-blending analysis of novel scenarios of MOVEMENT IN TIME in science fiction, in relation to the model of NATURAL LOCATIONS of the SELF that the particular scenario activates. The thesis also presents an analysis of the possible clashes between the frames of MOVEMENT IN TIME and MOVEMENT IN SPACE in time-travel science fiction, and a conceptual-blending analysis of several extensions of conventional models of CAUSATION in time-travel science fiction (temporal paradoxes). The source texts discussed in the third chapter include science fiction stories by Terry Carr, L. Sprague de Camp, Henry Kuttner and James Tiptree Jr., as well as the novel The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. (Krystian Aparta)