The structure of time : language, meaning, and temporal cognition / Vyvyan Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Evans, Vyvyan.

Series:

Human cognitive processing ; v. 12.

Human cognitive processing, 1387-6724 ; v. 12

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space and time in language.

Semantics.

Cognition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

One of the most enigmatic aspects of experience concerns time. Since pre-Socratic times scholars have speculated about the nature of time, asking questions such as: What is time? Where does it come from? Where does it go? The central proposal of The Structure of Time is that time, at base, constitutes a phenomenologically real experience. Drawing on findings in psychology, neuroscience, and utilising the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this work argues that our experience of time may ultimately derive from perceptual processes, which in turn enable us to perceive events. As such, temporal experience is a pre-requisite for abilities such as event perception and comparison, rather than an abstraction based on such phenomena. The book represents an examination of the nature of temporal cognition, with two foci: (i) an investigation into (pre-conceptual) temporal experience, and (ii) an analysis of temporal structure at the conceptual level (which derives from temporal experience).

Contents:

The Structure of Time

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

dedication

Sonnet XII

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Part I. Orientation

The problem of time

1.1. The metaphysical problem and the linguistic problem

1.2. Temporal cognition

1.3. Why should we be interested in investigating time?

1.4. Introduction to the rest of the book

The phenomenology of time

2.1. Temporal concepts and event-comparison

2.2. The phenomenological basis of time

2.3. Studies investigating the experience of duration

2.4. Investigations of temporal experience as ``felt''

2.5. Temporal processing

2.6. Perceptual moments as the basis for the experience of duration

2.7. The perceptual moment and the experience of now

2.8. Discourse, consciousness and time

2.9. The primacy of subjective experience

2.10. Conclusion

The elaboration of temporal concepts

3.1. Intermodal connections and cognition

3.2. Subjective concepts and levels of cognitive processing

3.3. Conclusion

The nature of meaning

4.1. Meaning, experience and the nature of evolution

4.2. The embodiment of meaning

4.3. The experiential basis of conceptual meaning

4.4. Experiential correlation

4.5. Perceptual resemblance

4.6. Perception and `reality'

4.7. Perceptual analysis

4.8. On the meaning of words

4.9. Dictionaries versus encyclopaedias

4.10. Meaning and truth

4.11. Conclusion

The conceptual metaphor approach to time

5.1. Primary and compound metaphors

5.2. The moving time and moving ego mappings

5.3. Evaluating moving time and moving ego as instancs of primary metaphor

5.3.1. The problem of unelaborated time

5.3.2. The problem of cultural constructs

5.3.3. The problem of complex concepts

5.4. Implications for the primary metaphor approach.

5.5. Implications for the present study

5.6. Conclusion

A theory of word-meaning

6.1. Traditional views of lexical structure

6.1.1. The `distributed' nature of word-meaning

6.1.2. Polysemy

6.1.3. Grammatical considerations

6.2. Alternative approaches to lexical concepts

6.3. Meaning-extension as a principled process

6.3.1. The modelling issue

6.3.2. The methodological issue: Determining distinct senses

6.3.3. The methodological issue: Determining the Sanctioning Sense

6.3.4. The origination issue

6.3.5. The actuation issue

6.4. Principled polysemy

6.5. Conclusion

Part II. Concepts for time

The Duration Sense

7.1. Defining the Duration Sense

7.2. Evidence for the Duration Sense

7.3. Duration as the Sanctioning Sense

7.4. Elaboration in terms of physical length

7.5. Elaboration in terms of quality of experience

7.6. Temporal compression and protracted duration

7.7. Elaboration of temporal compression and protracted duration

7.8. An overview of the semantic network

7.9. Conclusion

The Moment Sense

8.1. Evidence for the Moment Sense

8.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

8.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

8.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

8.2. The Moment Sense versus the Duration Sense

8.3. Deriving the Moment Sense

8.4. Conclusion

The Instance Sense

9.1. Evidence for the Instance Sense

9.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

9.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

9.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

9.2. Derivation of the Instance Sense

9.3. Conclusion

The Event Sense

10.1. Evidence for the Event Sense

10.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

10.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

10.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

10.2. Further examples

10.3. Derivation of the Event Sense

10.4. Conclusion

The Matrix Sense.

11.1. Evidence for the Matrix Sense

11.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

11.1.2. The Grammatical Criterion

11.2. Concept elaboration employing motion content

11.3. Elaboration employing non-motion content

11.4. Derivation of the Matrix Sense

11.5. Conclusion

The Agentive Sense

12.1. Evidence for the Agentive Sense

12.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

12.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

12.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

12.2. Comparison with Lakoff and Turner (1989)

12.3. Derivation of the Agentive Sense

12.4. Conclusion

The Measurement-system Sense

13.1. Evidence for the Measurement-system Sense

13.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

13.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

13.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

13.2. Periodicity and the co-ordination of activity

13.3. Derivation of the Measurement-system Sense

13.4. Conclusion

The Commodity Sense

14.1. Evidence for the Commodity Sense

14.1.1. The Meaning Criterion

14.1.2. The Concept Elaboration Criterion

14.1.3. The Grammatical Criterion

14.2. Derivation of the Commodity Sense

14.3. Conclusion

The Present, Past and Future

15.1. Present, Past and Future

15.2. The Present and concept elaboration

15.3. The Past and Future, and concept elaboration

15.4. Cross-cultural differences: Aymara

15.5. Mandarin and the Temporal Sequence Model

15.6. Conclusion

Part III. Models for time

Time, motion and agency

16.1. Time and motion

16.2. Motion and concept elaboration

16.3. Motion and agency

16.4. Conclusion

Two complex cognitive models of temporality

17.1. Moving Time and Moving Ego as Complex Cognitive models

17.2. Evidence for Complex Moving Time

17.3. The Complex Moving Time model

17.4. Evidence for the Complex Moving Ego model

17.5. The Complex Moving Ego model.

17.6. Complex Moving Time versus Complex Moving Ego

17.7. Levels of conceptual organisation

17.8. Primary scenes and grounding scenarios

17.9. Conclusion

A third complex model of temporality

18.1. Sequencing relations

18.2. The Complex Temporal Sequence model

18.3. The Complex Temporal Sequence model in Hausa

18.4. Earlier/later and the vertical axis

18.5. Conclusion

Time in modern physics

19.1. The rise of relativity

19.2. Time in special relativity

19.3. Spacetime

19.4. Bergson's view of Einsteinian time

19.5. Conclusion

The structure of time

20.1. Two problems of time

20.2. A richer view

20.2.1. The inherent structure of time: Time as process

20.2.2. The ascribed structure of time: Time as object

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

References.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

9786612159961

9781282159969

1282159968

9789027293787

9027293783

OCLC:

60365277