Speaking, Gesturing, Reasoning
Methods and Issues in the Study of Spatial Construals of Time
People use space to structure their thoughts about time (e.g. Núñez &
Cooperrider 2013). In this chapter, we first provide a brief overview of the various
ways that we use space to talk, gesture, and reason about deictic and sequence time. We then discuss the strengths and limitations of the different
methodologies used to study space-time associations. We argue that some
methods are especially useful for documenting the existence of spatial construals
of time, while others are more useful for examining their flexibility. We illustrate
this point by describing circumstances under which temporal reasoning
diverges from patterns in both language and gesture.
References (56)
References
Bender, A., & Beller, S. 2014. Mapping Spatial Frames of Reference onto Time: a Review of Theoretical Accounts and Empirical Findings. Cognition 132, 342–382. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bergen, B.K., & Lau, T.T.C. 2012. Writing Direction Affects how People Map Space onto Time. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 109. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boroditsky, L. 2000. Metaphoric Structuring: Understanding Time through Spatial Metaphors. Cognition 75, 1–28. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boroditsky, L., & Gaby, A. 2010. Remembrances of Times East: Absolute Spatial Representations of Time in an Australian Aboriginal Community. Psychological Science 21, 1635–1639. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Calbris, G. 1990. The Semiotics of French Gestures. Bloomington, IA: IndianaUniversity Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Casasanto, D., & Jasmin, K. 2012. The Hands of Time: Temporal Gestures in English Speakers. Cognitive Linguistics 23, 643–674. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Casasanto, D., & Bottini, R. 2010. Can Mirror-Reading Reverse the Flow of Time? In C. Hölscher, et al. (eds.), Spatial Cognition VII (pp. 335–345). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cienki, A. 1998. Metaphoric Gestures and some of their Relations to Verbal Metaphorical Expressions. In J.-P. Koenig (ed.), Discourse and Cognition: Bridging the Gap (pp. 189–204). Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, H.H. 1973. Space, Time, Semantics, and the Child. In T.E. Moore (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language (pp. 27–63). New York: Academic Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
de la Fuente, J. et al. 2014. When you Think about it, your Past is in Front of you: how Culture Shapes Spatial Conceptions of Time. Psychological Science 25, 1682–1690. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Jorio, A. 2000. Gesture in Naples and Gesture in Classical Antiquity (trans. Adam Kendon). Bloomington, IA: Indiana University Press. First published (1832).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Duffy, S.E. et al. 2014. Moving through Time: the Role of Personality in Three Real-life Contexts. Cognitive Science. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eikmeier, V. et al. 2013. Dimensional Overlap between Time and Space. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 20, 1120–1125. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fedden, S., & Boroditsky, L. 2012. Spatialization of Time in Main. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 485. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fuhrman, O. et al. 2011. How Linguistic and Cultural Forces Shape Conceptions of Time: English and Mandarin Time in 3D. Cognitive Science 35(7), 1305–28. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fuhrman, O., & Boroditsky, L. 2010. Cross-Cultural Differences in Mental Representations of Time: Evidence From an Implicit Nonlinguistic Task. Cognitive Science 34, 1430–1451. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gaby, A. 2012. The Thaayorre Think of Time Like they Talk of Space. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 300. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldin-Meadow, S. 2003. Hearing Gesture: How our Hands Help us Think. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gu, Y. et al. 2013. What can Chinese Speakers’ Temporal Gestures Reveal about their Thinking about Time?
In Online Proceedings of TiGeR 2013: The Combined Meeting of the 10th International Gesture Workshop (GW) and the 3rd Gesture and Speech in Interaction (GESPIN) Conference
.
Hartmann, M., & Mast, F.W. 2012. Moving along the Mental Time Line Influences the Processing of Future Related Words. Consciousness and Cognition 21, 1558–1562. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Koch, S.C. et al. 2011. Up and Down, Front and Back: Movement and Meaning in the Vertical and Sagittal Axes. Social Psychology 42, 214–224. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kranjec, A., & McDonough, L. 2011. The Implicit and Explicit Embodiment of Time. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 735–748. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. 1980. Metaphors we Live by. Chicago: University of Chicago.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Levinson, S.C., & Majid, A. 2013. The Island of Time: Yélî Dnye, the Language of Rossel Island. Frontiers in Psychology 4, 61. ![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Le Guen, O., & Balam, L.I.P. 2013. No Metaphorical Timeline in Gesture and Cognition Among Yucatec Mayas. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 1–15.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McGlone, M.S., & Harding, J.L. 1998. Back (or Forward?) to the Future: The Role of Perspective in Temporal Language Comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 24, 1211–1223. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McNeill, D. 1992. Hand and Mind: what Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McTaggart, J. 1908. The unreality of time. Mind 17, 457–474. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Miles, L.K. et al. 2010. Moving through time, Psychological Science 21, 222–223. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Miles, L.K. et al. 2010. The Meandering Mind: Vection and Mental Time Travel. PLoS One 5, e10825. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Miles, L.K. et al. 2011. Can a Mind have Two Time Lines? Exploring Space-time Mapping in Mandarin and English Speakers. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 18, 598–604. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Moore, K.E. 2006. Space-to-time Mappings and Temporal Concepts. Cognitive Linguistics 17, 199–244. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Moore, K.E. 2011. Ego-perspective and Field-based Frames of Reference: Temporal Meanings of FRONT in Japanese, Wolof, and Aymara. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 759–776. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Murphy, G.L. 1996. On Metaphoric Representation. Cognition 60, 173–204. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nisbett, R.E., & Wilson, T.D. 1977. Telling more than we can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes. Psychological Review 84, 231–259. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Núñez, R.E., & Sweetser, E. 2006. With the Future Behind Them: Convergent Evidence From Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time. Cognitive Science 30, 401–450. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Núñez, R.E. et al. 2006. Time after Time: The Psychological Reality of the Ego- and Time-reference-point Distinction in Metaphorical Construals of Time. Metaphor and Symbol 21, 133–146. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Núñez, R. et al. 2012. Contours of Time: Topographic Construals of Past, Present, and Future in the Yupno Valley of Papua New Guinea. Cognition 124, 25–35. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Núñez, R., & Cooperrider, K. 2013. The Tangle of Space and Time in Human Cognition. Trends in Cognitive Science 17, 220–229. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ouellet, M. et al. 2010. Is the Future the Right Time? Experimental Psychology 57, 308–314. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Santiago, J. et al. 2007. Time (also) Flies from Left to Right. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14, 512–516. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sell, A.J., & Kashak, M.P. 2011. Processing Time Shifts Affects the Execution of Motor Responses. Brain and Language 117, 39–44. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shinohara, K., & Pardeshi, P. 2011. The more in Front, the Later: The Role of Positional Terms in Time Metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 749–758. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sullivan, J.L., & Barth, H.C. 2012. Active (not passive) spatial imagery primes temporal judgments. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 65, 1101–1109. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tenbrink, T. 2011. Reference Frames of Space and Time in Language. Journal of Pragmatics 43, 704–722. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Torralbo, A. et al. 2006. Flexible Projection of Time onto Spatial Frames of Reference. Cognitive Science 30, 747–757. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Traugott, E.C. 1978. On the Expression of Spatio-Temporal Relations in Language. Universals of Human Language. Volume 3: Word Structure, 369–400.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tversky, B., Kugelmass, S., & Winter, A. 1991. Cross-cultural and Developmental Trends in Graphic Productions. Cognitive Psychology 23, 515–557. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ulrich, R., & Maienborn, C. 2010. Left–right Coding of Past and Future in Language: the Mental Timeline During Sentence Processing. Cognition 117, 126–138. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ulrich, R. et al. 2012. With the Past Behind and the Future Ahead: Back-to-front Representation of Past and Future Sentences. Memory and Cognition 40, 483–495. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Walker, E.J., Bergen, B.K., & Núñez, R. 2014. Disentangling Spatial Metaphors for Time Using Non-spatial Responses and Auditory Stimuli. Metaphor & Symbol, 29(4), 316–327. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Walker, E.J. et al. 2013. Later Events Lie Behind Her, but not behind you: Compatibility Effects for Temporal Sequences along the Sagittal Axis Depend on Perspective. In M. Knauff, et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3729–3734). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Weger, U., & Pratt, J. 2008. Time Flies Like an Arrow: Space Time Compatibility Effects Suggest the Use of a Mental Time-line. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 426–430. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Yang, Wenxing, Jiaqi Dong, Ruidan Bi, Jian Gu & Xueqin Feng
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.