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‘n Kognitiewe benadering tot tydsdifferensiasie in diskoers


Marie Spruyt

Abstract

A cognitive approach to time differentiation in discourse. This article shows that, contrary to the traditional view that language and meaning can be analysed as entities which exist in objective reality, language is seen as the instrument which carries meaning — this places the conceptualiser of the real world in the centre with language as his subjective experience of the real world. Time differentiation in discourse can therefore not be described as a manifestation that stands apart from other manifestations in language — our perception of time has a subjective basis which depends on the conceptualiser's subjective experience of a given situation, and is reflected as such in language. This central aspect of cognitive linguistics is analysed and the mental spaces approach offered as a mechanism which allows us to reconstrue time metaphorically as space, and thus as a container in which past, present and future are locked up in still smaller containers as cognitive event frames. It is possible to move forward or backward between these event frames; a movement in time that is manifested in language through sintactical patterns and morphological markers.



In hierdie artikel word aangetoon dat, teenstrydig met die tradisionele beskouing dat taal en betekenis ontleed kan word as entiteite wat in die objektiewe werklikheid bestaan, taal gesien word as die instrument waardeur betekenis gedra word — hiervolgens staan die konseptualiseerder van die werklikheid in die sentrum en is taal die refleksie van sy subjektiewe ervaring van die werklikheid. Tydsdifferensiasie in diskoers kan derhalwe nie beskryf word as ‘n verskynsel wat in die taal los van ander verskynsels staan nie — ons waarneming van tyd het ‘n subjektiewe basis wat afhanklik is van die konseptualiseerder se subjektiewe ervaring van ‘n gegewe situasie, en word as sodanig in die taal gereflekteer. Hierdie basiese uitgangspunt van die kognitiewe grammatika oor die mens se ervaring van tyd word verken en die dinkruimtebenadering word aangebied as ‘n meganisme waarvolgens tyd as ruimte herbedink word, en derhalwe as ‘n houer waarin verlede, hede en toekoms in die vorm van kognitiewe gebeurerame binne kleiner houers opgesluit lê. ‘n Mens kan denkmatig daarheen terugkeer of daarin vooruit beweeg; ‘n beweging in tyd wat deur middel van sintaktiese patrone en morfologiese merkers in taal manifesteer.


(S/ern Af Linguistics & Applied Language Stud: 2000 18(1-4): 33-43)

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eISSN: 1727-9461
print ISSN: 1607-3614