When time is not space: the social and linguistic construction of time intervals and temporal event relations in an Amazonian culture

Chris Sinha, Vera da Silva Sinha, Joerg Zinken, Wany Sampaio

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

It is widely assumed that there is a natural, prelinguistic conceptual domain of time whose linguistic organization is universally structured via metaphoric mapping from the lexicon and grammar of space and motion. We challenge this assumption on the basis of our research on the Amondawa (Tupi Kawahib) language and culture of Amazonia. Using both observational data and structured field linguistic tasks, we show that linguistic space-time mapping at the constructional level is not a feature of the Amondawa language, and is not employed by Amondawa speakers (when speaking Amondawa). Amondawa does not recruit its extensive inventory of terms and constructions for spatial motion and location to express temporal relations. Amondawa also lacks a numerically based calendric system. To account for these data, and in opposition to a Universal Space-Time Mapping Hypothesis, we propose a Mediated Mapping Hypothesis, which accords causal importance to the numerical and artefact-based construction of time-based (as opposed to event-based) time interval systems.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)137-169
JournalLanguage and Cognition
Volume3
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2011

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • General Language Studies and Linguistics

Free keywords

  • Amazonian languages
  • conceptual metaphors
  • space
  • time
  • cognitive artefacts

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