[Lexicog] Time is money?

[Fritz Goerling]

Thank you for your helpful answer, Ron,

 

Fritz

 

Because conceptual metaphors underlie many idioms and secondary
("metaphorical") senses, I believe we need to identify the conceptual
metaphors that exist in a language and refer to them in our dictionary
entries. It might be possible, for instance, to include an appendix that
lists the conceptual metaphors and gives a list of examples under each:

 

Appendix A: Conceptual Metaphors

1. Time is a resource that you use.

waste time

save time

have time

cost (number) (time word), e.g. cost two hours

invested time in

time to spare

(run) out of time

 

Then each relevant dictionary entry could reference the appendix:

 

waste v. To use something without gaining any benefit from it. 'Leaving the
lights on all night wastes electricity.' (Using the metaphor 'Time is a
resource that you use', see Appendix A) 'I don't want to waste your time, so
let's get right down to business.'

 

Note that I don't consider the second example sentence to be a separate
sense. The meaning is the same. It is just applied to time as if time was a
resource. We can talk this way in English because of the conceptual
metaphor. Other languages can't. Our conceptual metaphor enables us to
include the abstract concept 'time' in the list of possible objects of
'waste' which would otherwise be limited to concrete resources. Consequently
I don't consider 'waste time' to be an idiom, but others might disagree with
me on this point.

 

Ron Moe

 


  _____  


From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Fritz Goerling
Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2007 7:11 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] Time is money?

A while ago we had a discussion on the most common nouns in the English
language.

“Time” was on top. I think that is revealing. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
considered in “Metaphors we live by” (2003)

the metaphorical concept TIME IS MONEY as is reflected in contemporary
English, analyzing the following examples:

You are WASTING my time.

The gadget will SAVE you hours.

I don’t HAVE the time to GIVE you.

How do you SPEND your time these days?

That flat tire COST me an hour.

I’ve INVESTED a lot of time in her.

I don’t HAVE  ENOUGH time to SPARE for that.

You’re RUNNING OUT of time.

To lose, use, put aside, budget time are other expressions.

All of them show TIME AS MONEY, TIME AS A LIMITED RESOURCE, and TIME AS A
VALUABLE COMMODITY.

The authors are right by saying that these conceptualizations are tied to
certain Western cultures, and that there are cultures where time is none of
these things or is defined differently.

You might know the joke about the Mexican and the Arab. The Mexican says to
the Arab, “I hear you have a word for tomorrow that’s similar to our word
mañana.”

“Yes,” replies the Arab. “Bukara. But it doesn’t have the same sense of
urgency.”

Well, what about strongly time-oriented nationalities like Americans,
northern Europeans (Germans, Swedes)? All who have travelled know about
cultural clashes in the area of different concepts of punctuality and time.

What then are the implications for dictionary-making, say in a bilingual
dictionary ‘English-language X//language X-English’?

How are different concepts of time handled vice versa? In an
‘English-German//German-English’ dictionary it might be relatively easy to
find equivalent or similar expressions. But how about a bililingual
dictionary ‘English-language X which was just reduced to writing’ and vice
versa? 

Fritz Goerling

 

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