International Symposium on Language and Communication: Research trends and challenges

A contrastive study of temporal feeling for a moment: East Asia and Papua New Guinea
Masahiko Nose
Shiga University, Hikone, Japan, nousemasa@gmail.com Abstract: This study contrasts adverbial usage in three typologically and genetically distinct languages: Chinese and Japanese in East Asia and Amele in Papua New Guinea. Specifically, this study focuses on the temporal expression for a moment. This temporal expression is related semantically to adverbial expressions of quality and quantity such as a little and a bit. This paper tries to clarify the grammatical and semantic characteristics of each language. Finally, I assert that the observed expressions are quite various among the three sample languages, which shows that each language has its own viewpoint on temporal evaluations. Moreover, the temporal expressions of all three languages utilize time is space metaphors and other figurative innovations. Keywords: contrastive, temporal expression, Chinese, Japanese, Papua New Guinea

1. Introduction
This study contrasts adverbial usages in the following three languages: Chinese, Japanese, and Amele in Papua New Guinea. This contrastive study tries to clarify differences among temporal expressions and, in particular, consider how these expressions relate to the grammars of the languages. There are more than 1,000 languages spoken in New Guinea Island, and their grammatical behaviors are said to be different from other languages in the world (Foley 1986:8-9). This study illustrates characteristics or tendencies of the New Guinea languages by focusing on one language, Amele. Thus, we explore the possibilities of the grammar of temporal expressions of East Asia as well as Papua New Guinea. Even in East Asia, Chinese and Japanese are typologically distinct, and they differ in terms of grammar, word order, verbal inflection, and other categories. Nevertheless, Japanese has borrowed many Chinese characters (kanji) from Chinese, and spatial and temporal expressions in Japanese are identical or related to those of Chinese. These three languages are not Western languages such as English and German, and possibly this study enables us to explain their temporal expressions from another viewpoint.

2. Methodology: basics of temporal expressions

This section reviews some preliminary studies on temporal expressions and illustrates one of them (perlative) in terms of semantics. There are several studies of temporal expressions, classified as verb-based and non-verb-based. The verb-based forms are represented by tense and aspect, and other non-verb forms are represented by noun-based adverbials and temporal adverbs (cf. Knig and Gast 2009). This study deals with nounbased adverbials and temporal adverbs. They (noun-based adverbials and temporal adverbs) can be classified roughly into four types: temporal inessive (in, on, etc), preessive (before, ago), postessive (after, later), and perlative (for, during). In particular, this study focuses on one perlative meaning: for a moment.

Some studies (Wierzbicka 1993, Kurzon 2008) describe temporal adverbs and adverbials semantically, and other studies (Anderson and Keenan 1985) define them in terms of deixis. One basic principle is inevitable: time is space (Radden 1997, Knig and Gast 2009), which means that temporal expressions are semantically related to spatial expressions. Spatial prepositions such as in a city and on a car are used in temporal expressions such as in 10 minutes and on Monday. Thus, spatial expressions are metaphorically realized in temporal expressions. In addition, Radden (1997:150) claims that [t]ime is also metaphorised as an object and may take many attributes that are typically associated with physical objects: it may thus be described as hard, heavy, rich, lean, long, short, new, old, big, little, great, good, nice, etc. This study concerns temporal or perlative meanings. Hagge (2010:303) defines perlative as a grammatical case that may be bounded or unbounded, depending on whether the past, present, or future event, whose duration is considered, is viewed as not having a beginning and an end. Perlative has two types of meanings: one is unbounded (for a minute), and another is bounded (in a minute). This study examines unbounded perlative meanings and tries to clarify points that preliminary studies have ignored. First, this study examines which forms (grammatical or lexical) are used to express for a moment in the sample languages. Second, it describes how each language construes such moments of time. Third, the study summarizes the results and considers their relationship to the time is space metaphor.

3. Results: a temporal expression of for a moment

This study focuses on the perlative meaning in temporal expressions; in particular, one temporal expressionfor a momentis examined in this section. It is considered to be semantically related to adverbial expressions of quality and quantity such as a little and a bit. This relationship can be explained by metaphorical extension (Knig & Gast 2009:222). In this section we observe the examples of three sample languages. First, this study considers for a moment in English, as shown in (1): (1) Imagine for a moment that you are the general manager of a medical office. (http://www.enotes.com/health/q-and-a/) There are several equivalent expressions of for a moment: in a minute, in a few seconds, for a while, for a short time. Similarly, there are equivalent expressions without prepositions, such as wait a moment and simply a minute. Moreover, there are adverbs of quantity, a little, a bit, which can be used in temporal situations. This study classifies them in forms with prepositions and those without prepositions. Other languages will use other grammatical forms (postposition case1); thus, temporal expressions have several grammatical means or simply lexical means. In Chinese there are three types of a little expressions, as shown in (2). Each expression shows different usage according to degree, quality/quantity, and temporal meanings. (2a) and (2c) can indicate the temporal expression for a moment in Chinese. (2) Chinese: a. yi1 xia4 a little b. yi1 dianr3 a little c. yi1 huir4 for a moment

(2a) implies both degree and the temporal meanings a little and once, but it functions as a verbal adverb modifying actions. The Chinese character yi means one, a little, and xia means down, bottom; thus, we suppose this form to be a bottom literally. Next, (2b) implies quantity and quality meanings a little, particularly modifying adjectives. This yi dianr form comprises one and point in Chinese characters and does not include any temporal meaning. (2c) has a temporal meaning (for a moment, mainly), consisting of one and meeting, opportunity, chance. All three forms do not require a preposition (such as the English word for), and this fact indicates that Chinese does not need a preposition or other grammatical means, even though Chinese has several types of prepositions. The examples above show that the temporal feeling is expressed by using lexical or adverbial means. In Japanese the lexical expression chotto (a little, just, slightly) covers both temporal (3a) and quality/quantity interpretations (3b). The form (3b) sukoshi (a little) similarly has degree and quantity/quality meanings; moreover, this sukoshi occurs in temporal situations, meaning a moment and a minute as well. Both chotto and sukoshi have longer redundant forms: chotto-no-aida and sukoshi-no-aida in (3c). The no (of) and aida (betweenness) forms clearly specify temporal intervals. Therefore, the difference between chotto and chotto-no-aida/sukoshi and sukoshi-no-aida corresponds to that between a moment and for a moment in English. In this case, the form aida (betweenness) can be interpreted as a relative noun with partly grammatical (not postposition) and partly lexical (not purely lexical) meanings. (3) Japanese: a. chotto a little, a bit, (for) a moment b. sukoshi a little, a bit, (for) a moment c. chotto-no-aida/sukoshi-no-aida: for a moment, in a certain moment (longer forms)

Moreover, chotto indicates looseness in discourse, as shown in (4a). However, sukoshi in (4b) sounds odd and does not imply looseness.2 (4) Japanese: a. Chotto Tokyo-made iku a little Tokyo-to go I will go to Tokyo casually. b. ? Sukoshi Tokyo-made iku.

Amele distinguishes between temporal and non-temporal meanings. Amele uses lexical means for a temporal meaning: sain gohic bahic3 in (5a), literally indicating time, short, very. That is, Amele speakers use the temporal expression for a moment with the meaning of short time. On the other hand, in (5b) non-temporal uses (degree, quality/quantity) are indicated by nag (little, small). The form nag4 is semantically different from gohic, and this difference can be subsumed in shortness and smallness. (5) Amele: a native language of Papua New Guinea a. sain gohic bahic for a moment: temporal (sain time, gohic short, bahic very) b. nag a little: (nag: little, small)

In particular, there is no grammatical marker (such as for in English) specifying temporal duration in (5a). The word sain plays an important role in describing temporal situations. The word sain has the meanings time and watch, and this form functions as a temporal adverbial. It can function as a temporal conjunction when in (6). (6) Amele: Usage of sain Sain ija haunna time I young when I was young

In summary, the temporal form for a moment indicates a short range of time, whereas the non-temporal form a little indicates a small piece of an object or thing. In addition, the temporal word sain introduces a characteristic of temporal adverbials. These facts show that Amele has one-by-one semantic elements of temporal expressions.

4. Discussion
This section discusses the observed data in terms of forms and meanings. First, this section considers grammatical forms specifying temporal expressions. In English, for instance, several prepositions are used to specify temporal points and durations, such as on Monday, for a week, and at night. Wierzbicka (1993:440-441) claims that speakers of English have some freedom in their choice of prepositions to go with words such as day or night. Specifically, in the perlative case, speakers of English can assume a psychological duration (during night, but not during dusk or during dawn) by adding the preposition during. Thus, many European languages have prepositions or equivalent grammatical forms (postposition cases) that limit temporal points or situations in semantic terms (Hagge 2010). In contrast, speakers of Chinese, Japanese and Amele have some freedom in their choice of not using grammatical means when they want to describe ambiguous or unbounded temporal situations. Section (7) summarizes the data of for a moment or a moment. Although the preposition for is used in English, no preposition or postposition case is used in Chinese, Japanese, or Amele. Japanese can use the longer form chotto-no-aida to specify temporal duration. This aida is a relative noun meaning betweenness, middle. This relative noun is used in adverbial phrases such as ago in English (Kurzon 2009:209). (7) a. b. c. d. Checking for grammatical markings for a moment: English: for a moment (preposition: for) Chinese: yi1 huir4 (lexically realized) Japanese: chotto-no-aida (relative noun: aida betweenness, middle) Amele: sain gohic bahic (lexically realized)

Chinese uses prepositions, but no preposition is used in the phrase for a moment. Thus, the temporal feeling in Chinese is realized lexically. Similarly, Amele depends on lexical means, but it is represented with the help of the word sain (time). This word sequence time short very is semantically transparent and a peculiar characteristic of New Guinea languages. Second, this section considers the time is space metaphor (Radden 1997, Anderson and Keenan 1985). Radden (1997:150, 162) claims that concepts of time have often been

developed from concepts of space but not vice versa. He continues: the English temporal prepositions for, since, and till as well as the temporal adverbs sudden, always, and again are derived originally from spatial meanings. Moreover, he adds that time is metonymically related to events and metaphorically to space and things. In general, prepositions indicating location or locative cases are used for temporal expressions, such as on Monday in English and shougo-ni (at noon) in Japanese. In (8a) the English preposition for can be considered to have been derived from the location-/space-based use of for, such as I leave for Canada tomorrow. By contrast, in (8be), the other three languages do not use a preposition or postposition case. Seemingly, Chinese, Japanese, and Amele do not have a semantic relationship between space and time. (8) a. b. c. d. e. Temporal expressions based on space/location: English: for a moment (the preposition for is space-based) Chinese: yi1 xia4 (the form xia means down, bottom) Chinese: yi1 huir4 (the form hui means meeting, opportunity, chance) Japanese: chotto-no-aida (relative noun: aida means betweenness, middle) Amele: sain gohic bahic (literally, time-short-very)

The temporal expressions do not include a grammatical form, but lexical forms include certain space/location meaning. In (8b) the form xia means down, bottom; in contrast, there is no location meaning hui in (8c). The form hui indicates meeting, opportunity, chance, and the temporal expression (8c) is equivalent to one meeting, one chance. Thus, (8c) is an exception to the time is space metaphor. In Japanese, the relative noun aida indicates a location meaning of betweenness, middle. In Amele, there is no grammatical form, and speakers of Amele consider temporal expressions to be short or long in duration (gohic means short). These expressions are semantically related to physical distance and possibly deictic terms. The temporal expression (short time) is parallel to an object or a distance (short stick, long way). The results are summarized in (9). (9) Relationship between time and space: a. space-based: down, bottom in Chinese, betweenness, middle in Japanese b. other motivations: meeting, chance in Chinese, short in Amele In (9), all three languages are various in usages, but certain expressions in (9b) do not reflect on the time is space metaphor. Therefore, we cannot assume semantically common characteristics among them, and it is still difficult to claim that their expressions can be equivalent to each other. Thus, we have difficulties to translate for a moment among English and other languages including Chinese, Japanese, and Amele.

5. Conclusion
Temporal expressions of for a moment are realized differently in the grammars of these three non-European languages. By comparison with for a moment in English, the equivalent expressions of these three languages are rather lexically dependent, although some are partly related to space/location. This study reveals that there are two types of languages: ones that utilize grammatical markings to limit the duration of time and others that indicate ambiguous temporal expressions by non-grammatical means. The former includes English, and the latter includes Chinese, Japanese, and Amele. In lexical terms,

Chinese and Japanese indicate a little time, whereas Amele indicates a short time, but there are additional meanings as well. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account other semantic or cultural motivations for explaining these temporal expressions. Notes * I acknowledge the sponsorship of the CASIO Science Promotion Foundation and appreciate the grant-in-aid for Young Scientists (B) received from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. I thank Chen Yanyun (Chinese) and Neret Tamo (Amele) for their data and kindness. I claim sole responsibility for any errors. 1 2 3 4 In Hungarian, for a moment is represented with the help of the locative case, egy pillnat-ra (one moment-locative case onto). In contrast, the form chotto-no-aida does not mean looseness in (4a). Instead, chotto no aida Tokyo-made iku means a certain duration of time: I go to Tokyo for a while, in days. Notation in Amele is special: a character c phonologically represents a glottal stop. Moreover, it is strange that the adverb nag changes sentence meanings according to the word order positions. In (ia), nag appears between house and big, in which case the house is small, but in (ib), nag is in the final position, and the house is big. In (ic), the repetitive form nag nag implies intensity or emphasis. (i) Amele: Roberts (1987:93) a. Jo nag ben. house small big A house that is a little bit small. b. Jo ben nag. house big small A house that is a little bit big. c. Jo eu nag nag house that small small That house is very small.

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