Cognitive Semantics : Meaning and Cognition

SPACE AND TIME 137
mal] with the value ‘now’, i.e. tense is deictic, while sequencing is the ordering
of events and situations with respect to each other. With respect to tense, some
languages only distinguish [+Proximal] from [-Proximal], i.e. ‘now’ from
‘then’, no matter whether ‘then’ is in the future or in the past. Such languages
do not make use of a time line of tense. Correspondingly, Traugott claims, if a
language only distinguishes [+Initial] from [-Initial], it does not make use of a
time line of sequencing. (For a criticism of Traugott’s attempt to transfer the
distinction between expressions with and without a time line from the time line
of tense to the time line of sequencing (1978: 379-380), see Engberg-Pedersen
1993: 91.)
On the two time lines ‘earlier’ is always to the left, and ‘later’ to the right,
but [-Front] is to the left (‘earlier’) on the time line of tense, while [-Front] is to
the right (‘later’) on the time line of sequencing. The difference in the value of
the feature [Front] on the two types of time lines can most easily be understood
as a difference in whose “front” is referred to: on the time line of tense, [Front]
should be interpreted as referring to the speaker’s front-back orientation; on
the time line of sequencing, [Front] refers to time’s front-back orientation. In
order to assign front-back orientation to time on the time line of sequencing,
Traugott needs a reference point to the left of the time line of sequencing:
when Event 1 is before — or precedes — Event 2 , both must be seen from a
TENSE:
[-Proximal] (then) [+Proximal] (now) [-Proximal] (then)
T--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------T
[+Prior] (past) [-Prior] (future)
Source Goal
come → go →
[-Front] (behind, back) [+Front] (forward, ahead)
SEQUENCING:
[+Initial] (E1, first) [-Initial] (E2, second)
T--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------T
[+Prior] (earlier) [-Prior] (later)
[+Front] (before) [-Front] (after)
← preceding ← following
Figure 3. The time line of tense and the time line of sequencing (Traugott 1978: 378 and
382).