EGO-MOVING AND TIME-MOVING METAPHORS IN THE LANGUAGES OF BIH, AND THE ROLE OF EMOTIONAL VALENCE IN TEMPORAL COGNITION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35120/sciencej0402093mKeywords:
temporal metaphors, ego-moving and time-moving perspective, emotional valence, South Slavic languages, cognitive linguisticsAbstract
This study explores how emotional valence influences metaphorical conceptualizations of time in the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian. Building on the cognitive linguistic distinction between ego-moving and time-moving metaphors, we hypothesized that speakers would be more likely to frame themselves as moving toward future events (ego-moving) when the events were positively evaluated, and to frame time as moving toward them (time-moving) when the events were negatively evaluated. To test this, we designed a structured questionnaire featuring twenty everyday scenarios involving future events with varying emotional valence. The questionnaire was distributed to 131 native speakers, who selected between metaphorical expressions and classified each event as either positive or negative. The results revealed a strong and statistically significant association between emotional valence and metaphor preference. Participants overwhelmingly favored ego-moving metaphors for positive events, emphasizing agency, progress, and intentionality, while time-moving metaphors were predominantly chosen for negative events, suggesting passivity, threat, or lack of control. These findings not only corroborate earlier research conducted in English but also demonstrate that the link between emotion and temporal metaphor preference extends into the South Slavic language complex. By focusing on three closely related yet culturally distinct linguistic varieties (Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian), the study highlights both the robustness and the subtle variability of cognitive patterns underlying temporal discourse. The results contribute to a growing body of evidence that emotional framing plays a systematic role in shaping how speakers across languages conceptualize their movement through time.
Downloads
References
Baron, S., Everett, B. C., Latham, A. J., Miller, K., Tierney, H., Thang, J. V. (2023). Moving ego versus moving time: investigating the shared source of future-bias and near-bias. Synthese, 202, Article number 94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-023-04286-0
Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers’ conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0748
Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75(1), 1–28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00073-6
Boroditsky, L., & Ramscar, M. (2002). The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13(2), 185–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00434
Casasanto, D., & Boroditsky, L. (2008). Time in the mind: Using space to think about time. Cognition, 106(2), 579–593. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.03.004
Clark, H. H. (1973). Space, time, semantics, and the child. In T. Moore (Ed.), Cognitive development and the acquisition of language (pp. 27–63). Academic Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-505850-6.50008-6
Duffy, S. E., Feist, M. I. (2024). Time, Metaphor and Language: A Cognitive Science Perspective. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108150101
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
Margolies, S. O., & Crawford, L. E. (2008). Event valence and spatial metaphors of time. Cognition and Emotion, 22(7), 1401–1414. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930701810335
Matlock, T., Ramscar, M., & Boroditsky, L. (2011). On the experiential link between spatial and temporal language. Cognitive Science, 35(1), 99–117.
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(5), 1211–1223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.24.5.1211
McGlone, M. S., & Pfiester, R. A. (2009). Does time fly when you’re having fun? A cognitive analysis of the role of emotion in temporal language. Discourse Processes, 46(5), 401–425.
Piata, A., Soriano, C. (2022). The affect bias in the metaphorical representation of anticipated events. Metaphor and the Social World. 12(1), 115-137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.18034.pia
Radden, G. (2003). The Metaphor TIME AS SPACE across Languages. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht, 20, 226-239.
Stanojević, M. M., Tonković, M., Peti-Stantić, A. (2023). When do Metaphorical Frames Exhibit Psycholinguistic Effects? The Case of the Ego-Moving and Time-Moving Metaphor in Climate Change. Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, 47(2), 97-107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2023.47.2.97-107
Xu, X., Jia, M., Chen, R. (2024). Time moving or ego moving? How time metaphors influence perceived temporal distance. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 34(3), 466-480. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1370
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
