The Structure of Time (Human Cognitive Processing) - Softcover

Evans, Vyvyan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 902722367X ISBN 13: 9789027223678

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2004

Synopsis

One of the most enigmatic aspects of experience concerns time. Since pre-Socratic times scholars have speculated about the nature of time, asking questions such as: What is time? Where does it come from? Where does it go? The central proposal of The Structure of Time is that time, at base, constitutes a phenomenologically real experience. Drawing on findings in psychology, neuroscience, and utilising the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this work argues that our experience of time may ultimately derive from perceptual processes, which in turn enable us to perceive events. As such, temporal experience is a pre-requisite for abilities such as event perception and comparison, rather than an abstraction based on such phenomena. The book represents an examination of the nature of temporal cognition, with two foci: (i) an investigation into (pre-conceptual) temporal experience, and (ii) an analysis of temporal structure at the conceptual level (which derives from temporal experience).

About this title

About the Author

Vyvyan Evans is a member of faculty in the department of Linguistics and English Language, and the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, UK. He is also author (with Andrea Tyler) of "The Semantics of English Prepositions: Spatial Scenes, Embodied Meaning and Cognition".

Review

"Time belongs to the bedrock of human cognition. Beginning before birth and remaining for the most part below the horizon of consciousness, temporal cognition is a mystery not easily penetrated. The Structure of Time is an indispensable investigation, rich in theory and examples, into the phenomenology and the linguistics of the way we think about time." Mark Turner, Institute Professor, Case Western Reserve University; "With this work, Cognitive Linguistics finally turns its attention from Space to Time." Jordan Zlatev, Lund University, Sweden; "This work is interesting, creative, thought-provoking, and timely (no pun intended)" Wallace Chafe, University of California at Santa Barbara"

Edition details

• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 902722367X
• ISBN 13: 9789027223678
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 292