Some remarks on the duality of the concept of time in the lexicon of Tok Pisin

Abstract

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.