The grammar of temporal motion: A Cognitive Grammar account of motion metaphors of time

Abstract

<p>Abstract: Recent groundbreaking work in cognitive linguistics has revealed the<br />semantic complexity of motion metaphors of time and of temporal frames of<br />reference. In most approaches the focus has been on the clause-level metaphorical<br />meaning of expressions, such as MOVING EGO (<i>We are approaching the end<br />of the year</i>) and MOVING TIME (both EGO-CENTERED, as in <i>The end of the year is<br />approaching </i>and FIELD-BASED, as in <i>Boxing Day follows Christmas Day</i>). The<br />detailed grammatical structure of these metaphorical expressions, on the other<br />hand, has received less attention. Such details include both elements that<br />contribute to the metaphorical meaning and those that have a non-metaphorical<br />temporal function, e. g., tense and (central features of) aspect. I propose a model<br />for the analysis of metaphorical expressions, building on earlier work in<br />Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the framework of Cognitive Grammar (CG).<br />I approach the grammatical structure of metaphorical expressions by analyzing<br />the interplay between veridical and metaphorical systems of expressing temporal<br />relations. I argue that these systems relate to two relevant conceptualizations<br />of time. Veridical time (VT) is the non-metaphorical conceptualization of<br />time, where the processual profile of the clause-level metaphorical expression<br />resides. A metaphorical path (MP) is the metaphorical conceptualization of time<br />as a path occupied by the metaphorical motion. A motion metaphor of time<br />tracks the MOVER’s changing position on the MP against VT. I show how<br />metaphorical expressions based on a motion verb differ from those based on a<br />prepositional construction in grammatical and semantic terms, and how tense<br />and aspect contribute to the conceptualization of the motion scenario. I argue<br />that tense grounds the metaphorical motion event with respect to the speech<br />event. All the participants in the motion event, as well as the metaphorical path<br />itself, are present in each subsequent configuration tracked against VT by the<br />conceptualizer. Thus tense has a wide scope over the motion scenario with Ego’s<br />‘now’ as a reference point, while Ego’s ‘now’ cannot serve for grounding of<br />tense. This is why expressions such as *<i>The meeting is difficult ahead of us</i> are<br />not acceptable.<br /><br /></p>