The two-Mover hypothesis and the significance of “direction of motion” in temporal metaphors

Abstract

It is claimed that expressions that instantiate sequence is relative position on a path (e.g. Spring follows winter) are the only type of temporal expression in English in which two distinct entities metaphorically move. A possible motivation for why we do not find two Times-as-Movers "moving toward" the future may be that people are not disposed to tracking two "nows". It is further hypothesized that this could be a crosslinguistically common or universal tendency, and data relevant to the constraint are discussed for Japanese and Wolof (West Africa). This exercise documents and categorizes certain semantic relations (such as ahead/behind) that are relevant to the study of direction of motion in metaphors of time.

Temporal frames of reference and the locative case marking of the Finnish adposition ete- ‘in front of / ahead’

“…Moore also analyzes examples related to time zones, such as Greenwich Mean Time is 8 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, and concludes (Moore, 2014b:390) that such expressions are not counterexamples to the two-mover constraint, because the times involved are again not distinct 'nows' but counterparts of each other that designate the same absolute time (for a detailed analysis and alternative interpretations, see Moore, 2014b). This means that such examples fail to satisfy condition 1) of the two-mover constraint, namely that the two Movers map onto successive times.…”

“…Such expressions provide a test case for the two-mover constraint proposed by Moore (2014b), stating that SEQUENCE IS A RELATIVE POSITION ON A PATH is the only kind of temporal metaphor that allows two distinct entities to metaphorically move; in EGO-CENTERED metaphors there can be only one mover.…”

Elaborating time in space: the structure and function of space–motion metaphors of time

“…Sequence is position has generally been analyzed as a submapping of Ego-centered Moving Time, and indeed there is a level of generality at which the two share properties (see Moore, 2014b). The reason for analyzing the two as distinct is that while instantiations of Ego-centered Moving Time are canonically deictic, instantiations of sequence is position have no tendency to be deictic, although they are in principle perfectly compatible with deixis.…”

“…[Also bad on the interpretation that you stir fry them after you cut them. ] The two-Mover constraint has been shown to hold in English (Moore, 2014b) and Finnish (Huumo, 2015). There is also reason to believe that the constraint holds in Wolof and Japanese.…”

Classification and Categorization: Linguistic and Cultural Conceptualization of Time in the YiJing

“…Thus, it seems that people from different eras may have a similar conceptualization of time, but in fact the conceptualization of time is a very complex issue that is addressed in many fields and disciplines. There have been numerous previous studies on the conceptualization or representation of time in the domains of philosophy (e.g., Minkowski, 1964;Silva Sinha et al, 2012), anthropology (e.g., Schieffelin, 2002;Postill, 2002;Abu-Shams & González-Vázquez, 2014), physics (e.g., Birth, 2012;Wei & Wang, 2014), cosmology (e.g., Hubert, 1999), biology and neuroscience (e.g., Levine, 1998;Núñez & Cooperrider, 2013;, cognitive science (e.g., Levinson, 2003;Núñez & Cornejo, 2012;Majid, et al, 2013;Majid, et al, 2013), culture and linguistics (e.g., Moore, 2006Moore, , 2014Núñez & Sweetser, 2006;Sinha et al, 2011), and other fields (e.g., Tenbrink, 2011). The past research mainly indicates that the nature of time has been an on-going puzzle for all of philosophy and science, including language and cognition.…”