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Backwards time: Causal catachresis and its influence on viewpoint flow

  • Douglass Virdee EMAIL logo
From the journal Cognitive Linguistics

Abstract

This paper proposes a cognitive linguistic explanation of the unusual narrative construal of time as moving backwards. It shows that backwards time in narrative involves setting up an alternative space in which a second narrative is constructed simultaneously, resulting in a viewpoint hierarchy which postulates four viewpoints on each discourse statement. The paper draws together research on conceptual metaphor, mental spaces theory and viewpoint multiplicity, bringing it to bear on discourse fragments. The majority of these are taken from Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow (Amis, Martin. 2003 [1991]. Time’s Arrow. London: Vintage.) (a logically consistent and linguistically revealing text), but the discussion is contextualised with further examples. It is argued that the causal construal implied by narrative is not limited by our phenomenological experience, as other studies (e.g., Evans, Vyvyan. 2013. Language and time: A cognitive linguistics approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.) might suggest, but is instead prompted by conceptual re-interpretation of deictic markers in the discourse. The analysis focuses on causal construal, negation (especially causal catachresis), and alternativity. It shows how linguistic features at the sentential level generate top-down reorganization of both episodic structure and discourse meaning, and how this relies on multiplicity of viewpoint and a conceptual “zooming out” prompting the perception of irony.

Acknowledgements

This paper is the outcome of a period of research conducted at the University of British Columbia. I am grateful for the Visiting International Research Studentship which made this possible as well as for the encouragement, generosity, and invaluable criticism I received from Barbara Dancygier, without whom this paper would not have been started. Much of the writing has taken place under the ideal conditions provided by the Department of English Studies at Durham University where I have benefited from the support of Peter Garratt and Patricia Waugh; I thank them for continuing to challenge and inspire me. Finally, I must thank my anonymous reviewers, the guest editors Kobie van Krieken, José Sanders, Eve Sweetser, and the Editor-in-Chief John Newman. Their comments on the manuscript have greatly improved it and have helped to bring the paper to completion. It goes without saying that any remaining errors are my own.

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Received: 2018-03-30
Revised: 2018-09-30
Accepted: 2018-11-30
Published Online: 2019-05-09
Published in Print: 2019-05-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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