Do English and Mandarin Speakers Think Differently About Time?

Abstract

Do the languages we speak shape the ways we think? Boroditsky, (2001) demonstrated that speakers of English and Mandarin think differently about time. This work has recently been brought into question (January & Kako, 2007;Chen, 2007). Here I present new evidence that again demonstrates a difference between English and Mandarin speakers' construals of time. Both languages use horizontal and vertical spatial language to talk about time. For example, in English we might say that the best is ahead of us, or we may move a meeting up. In English, vertical metaphors are relatively infrequent and horizontal metaphors predominate. In Mandarin, both horizontal and vertical metaphors are frequent. Importantly, vertical metaphors are much more frequent in Mandarin than they are in English. The new evidence once again suggests that Mandarin speakers don't just talk about time vertically more frequently than do English speakers, they also think about time vertically more frequently than do English speakers.

The Vertical and Horizontal Spatial-Temporal Conceptual Metaphor Representation of Chinese Temporal Words

“…The present study also indicated that the horizontal dimension is the dominant one in Chinese spatial-temporal metaphor, which is in accord with many previous studies (Boroditsky, 2011;Boroditsky et al, 2011;Chen, 2007;Scott, 1989). This could be due to writing direction , as Tversky, Kugelmass, and Winter (1991) asked Arabic and English speaking participants to arrange chronological order of events in horizontal direction (such as three meals a day in order).…”

“…The psychological impact and processing mechanism of the spatial-temporal conceptual metaphor had been a controversial topic in recent years (Boroditsky, 2000(Boroditsky, , 2001Boroditsky, 2011;Boroditsky et al, 2011;Casasanto & Boroditsky, 2008;Chen, 2007;Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010;Gentner et al, 2002;Lakoff & Johnson, 1980b;Ouellet et al, 2010;Torralbo et al, 2006;Tversky & Shafir, 2004;Tversky & Franklin, 1994). …”

“…A number of studies have reported horizontal spatial-temporal metaphor in English (Boroditsky, 2011;Boroditsky et al, 2011;Fuhrman et al, 2011;Ouellet, Santiago, Jesus Funes, & Lupianez, 2010;Torralbo, Santiago, & Lupiáñez, 2006).…”

Priming the mental time-line: effects of modality and processing mode

“…This congruency effect implies that time is mentally represented along a line, extending horizontally from left to right. Further studies have supported the existence of this ''mental time-line'' (for an overview, see Bonato et al 2012 andBoroditsky et al 2010) and have shown that the correspondence of time and space depends on the direction of reading (Fuhrman et al 2011;Fuhrman and Boroditsky 2010;Tversky et al 1991). Specifically, whereas left-to-right readers (e.g., English and Mandarin speakers) place the past on the left and the future on the right, right-toleft readers (e.g., Hebrew speakers) show the reverse spacetime mapping.…”

Can a mind have two time lines? Exploring space–time mapping in Mandarin and English speakers

“…In a seminal article, Boroditsky (2001, Experiment 1) reported that native English speakers respond to questions about time more rapidly when primed with information specifying a horizontal (vs. vertical) spatial relation, whereas native Mandarin speakers display the equivalent effect following vertical (vs. horizontal) primes (but see Chen 2007;January & Kako, 2007). Similarly, Boroditsky, Fuhrman, and McCormick (2011) recently reported that Mandarin speakers were more likely to process temporal information as if it were structured vertically than were English speakers.…”