The chapter builds on previous research into the concept of time in signed languages (Brennan 1983; Wilcox 2000; Taub 2001; Sutton-Spence and Woll 2010). Relying on the framework of the second generation cognitive linguistics (Lakoff and Johnson 1999), it discusses the key elements of the Western view of time as expressed in American, British, Polish, and other signed languages. Signs based on metaphors, metonymies, and interactions of these two conceptual mechanisms represent the conception of time rooted in classical physics (Newton 1729), the paradigm of life sciences (McGrath and Kelly 1986), and the efficiency-oriented concept of work (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). They reflect time’s linearity and cyclicity, its division into homogenous units, and its use as an economic resource.

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The duality of the concept of time in Tok Pisin, an English-lexified creole and one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea, manifests itself in the Melanesian-European elements that make up its temporal lexicon. Expressions that reflect the local semantic-cultural substratum – motivated by astronomical, natural, and religious events – have functioned side by side with their counterparts provided by the English superstratum, which reflect clock measures of time and represent it as a resource and money. The competing impact of indigenous and Western elements is also present in representations of time as space and in forms of temporal succession. The analysed expressions show that the concept of time in Tok Pisin not only reflects partial Anglicization, but also shares cross-linguistically common patterns of time construal with non-contact languages having much longer histories.

Abstract:Indirect speech acts are frequently structured by more than a single metonymy. The metonymies are related not only to the illocutionary force of the utterances, but also function within the individual lexemes being their parts. An indirect speech act can thus involve not only multiple, but also multi-levelled operation of conceptual metonymy.

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