Hamdi S. Conceptual metaphors of time in English and in Arabic: a comparative cognitive study

Québec: Université Laval, 2008. — XI, 398 p.Despite the continuing interest in metaphor, on the one hand, and the growing interest in corpus-based methods, on the other hand, few studies have combined these two elements. Also, to date, no single study has provided a systematic comparative analysis of time metaphors in English and Arabic. Thus, by providing a corpus-based comparative study of time metaphors in two unrelated languages: English and Arabic using the tools proposed by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), this dissertation has contributed to the CMT by helping to place it in a wider, cross-cultural and crosslinguistic perspective. The thesis demonstrates that English and Arabic share the following conceptual metaphors: time as space, time as a moving entity, time as a bounded space, time as a location, time as an extension, time as a starting point/destination, time as a container, time and observer as moving in the same direction, time as a bounded space and a moving entity, time as an object, time as a possession, time as an object that can be given, time as an object that can be taken, time as an object that can be shared, time as an object subject to loss, time as an object that one can look for, time as an object that is needed, time as an object collocating with us, time as a qualifiable object, time as a precious object, time as a person, time as money, time as a limited resource. Some of these conceptual metaphors display variations at the level of linguistic metaphors. The results suggest that the two languages have different congruent, i.e., specific level, metaphors. For instance, both languages share the generic conceptual metaphor time as an object. But at the specific level, English conceptualizes time as an herb, a ship, a book; Arabic conceptualizes time as a disease. While sharing the generic conceptual metaphor time as space, Arabic differs from English in conceptualizing time in terms of depth and width. Divergence in conceptual metaphors of time between the two languages is explained as stemming from physical and historical differences between the two cultures/nations. This study shows that metaphors of time are primarily based on common human bodily experiences, with surface differences between English and Arabic. It also provides attested linguistic evidence, from a language other than English, in support of the CMT claim that metaphor is essential to human understanding of the abstract concept of time.