Temporal Metaphors in Discourse

In this paper we present the results of a preliminary survey to investigate the range of temporal metaphors in mundane discourse in English. We concentrate in particular on temporal metaphors that involve space and movement, which we call ‘spatio-kinetic’ temporal metaphors. We present a sample of real text showing how, even in a short piece of discourse, a wide variety of temporal metaphors is used. The spatio-kinetic temporal metaphors discovered in our survey include, but, importantly, are not limited to, the temporal metaphors identified by Lakoff and Johnson (1999) and Lakoff's Master Metaphor List (MML). We propose a number of new categories of temporal metaphor that should be added, and present a preliminary re-grouping of the list. We then consider the various ways in which temporal metaphors can be “mixed” or combined in discourse, and present examples of such combinations. Finally, we argue that, in order to determine the temporal relations between the events, states, etc. described in text, not only do we need to consider the interaction between tense, aspect, temporal adverbials and so on, but that we need to understand the crucial contribution made by temporal metaphors to the temporal structure of discourse.