Perceptual Foundations of English Temporal and Aspectual Constructions
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The paper argues that selected English temporal and aspectual constructions, despite their seeming disparities of use, are motivated by perceptual experience. The analysis indicates close parallels between certain types of perceptual experience of seeing an object in space and the uses of three grammatical constructions: Present Simple, Past Simple, and Present Continuous. The analysis is based on the insights derived from two cognitive theories: the theory of image schemas (Johnson 1987) and Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987). More specifically, it is argued that time is not the ultimate domain of extension for the constructions—similarities and differences between the constructions are best seen when one more type of domain is assumed—epistemic. It is also claimed that Present Continuous encodes a specific dimension derived from spatial relations, namely distance, and this is a dimension that the construction shares with the two temporal constructions.
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Joos (1964), James (1982), Langacker (1991; 2008; 2009; 2011), MacLaury (1995), Aoyagi (1995), Fleischman (1989; 1991; 2009), Janssen (1991), Fielder (1995; 1996), Talmy (2000), Tyler and Evans (2001), Brisard (2002; 2013), Croft and Cruse (2004), De Wit and Brisard (2009), Botne and Kershner (2008), Botne (2012), etc.
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Perceptual Foundations of English Temporal and Aspectual Constructions
In: Cognitive SemanticsSearch for other papers by Grzegorz Drożdż in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The paper argues that selected English temporal and aspectual constructions, despite their seeming disparities of use, are motivated by perceptual experience. The analysis indicates close parallels between certain types of perceptual experience of seeing an object in space and the uses of three grammatical constructions: Present Simple, Past Simple, and Present Continuous. The analysis is based on the insights derived from two cognitive theories: the theory of image schemas (Johnson 1987) and Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987). More specifically, it is argued that time is not the ultimate domain of extension for the constructions—similarities and differences between the constructions are best seen when one more type of domain is assumed—epistemic. It is also claimed that Present Continuous encodes a specific dimension derived from spatial relations, namely distance, and this is a dimension that the construction shares with the two temporal constructions.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 400 | 49 | 9 |
| Full Text Views | 128 | 3 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 28 | 2 | 0 |
