Timelines: Conceptual Integr ation, Emotion, and Poetic Effects
Cristóbal Pagán Cánovas1, Seana Coulson2, Max Jensen3,1Classics Department, University of Murcia, Spaincpcanovas@um.es
2
Cognitive Science Department, University of California San Diego, California, USA
coulson@cogsci.ucsd.edu
3
Cognitive Linguistics & World Literature, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
mfj4@case.edu

Abstr act. One of the most broadly investigated topics in the literature on conceptual mappings isthe importance of spatial construals for thinking and talking about time. In two forthcoming
articles [1] [7] we explore how people understand timelines – both as graphical objects, indiscourse about timelines taken from newspapers and the web, and in poetic examples. A
comparison with metaphors incorporating circular patterns shows that temporal and affective
meanings can change dramatically when they arise from different spatial structures.
Keywor ds: timeline metaphors, time-space mappings, generic templates of conceptual integration,material anchors for conceptual blends, image schemas, emotion.

1 The Timeline
When instantiated graphically, the timeline serves as a material anchor [4] in a conceptual integration
network [2] representing partial cognitive models of time, lines, objects, and a hybrid model known
as a blend. When understood with respect to this network, the analogue properties of the line give it
novel computational properties that facilitate inferences about the events it represents.
The history of the modern timeline reflects a distributed cognitive process involving multiple
individuals over a large span of time. It illustrates the cultural development of conceptual integration
networks. Conventional mapping schemas are best viewed not as determining the interpretation oftimelines, but rather as providing soft constraints that help guide meaning construction.

2 Anchoring the Time-Space Scene: Computational Pr oper ties of Timelines
A detailed analysis shows that the cognitive linguistic research on time-space metaphors does not
merely describe a set of mappings from space to time; it rather describes a particular spatial scene
with temporal meaning, which recurs across many metaphoric expressions. This scene is framed by asimple, familiar spatial event: an object or objects travel towards a reference point or observer.
The temporal version of the motion scene has restrictive and often contradictory properties. Forinstance, in this schematic narrative all observers are on the same spot, all objects are aligned totravel along the same path, objects cannot overtake one another, arrive at the same time or fromdifferent directions, change trajectory, etc. None of these occur in our normal experience of motion
through space. These properties rather originate from cognitive constraints set by our existingknowledge of time. Instead of being the result of direct space-time projections, they emerge fromsuccessive integrations of a variety of conceptual materials, including event structure, motion, and acultural mechanism to measure duration [3]. The properties of the line comply with these constraints,
and provide an adequate topology for the blend, although they clash with many other basic aspects ofour experience of traversing paths. Thus the timeline has properties distinct from those of thecognitive models in each of its inputs.
Although it instantiates some of the mappings in the TIME IS SPACE metaphor [6] [5], thetimeline itself is an integrated construct with computational affordances that differ from thoseavailable in the input domains. For example, studying a timeline might enhance one’s memory for thesequence of salient events, or allow us to more easily recognize the most productive periods via thedensity of points. Researchers in the field of information visualization recommend timelines because
their visual properties facilitate inferences about temporal events (such as temporal and causalcontingency) that are either difficult or impossible to make using other representational formats [8].
Much of the emergent structure of the timeline and its novel computational properties result fromthe compression of temporal relationships to spatial ones, as well as from the congregation in theblend of structures from multiple inputs. Rhetorical goals are also crucial, as shown by everyday
metaphoric expressions providing further emergent properties: timelines can be cut or compressed
into analogous but shorter ones, years can be taken away from them, they can be accelerated, etc.

3 Linear and Cir cular Patter ns in Poetic Time Metaphors
In addition to the analysis of the computational properties of timelines and the metaphoric language
related to them [1], Pagán Cánovas and Jensen [7] compare time metaphors by Borges, Kavafis,
Heraclitus, Manrique, Lorca, Quevedo, Paz, and Shakespeare, and by recent prose writers Ian
McDonald and Karen Russell. These metaphors exhibit a linear pattern (such as a river) or a circularpattern (such as a winding labyrinth).
Analysis of this corpus suggests that static lines and circles can acquire narrative properties, beinstantiated according to relevant cultural frames and rhetorical goals (e.g. a line can be a snake, acircle a magnifying glass), blend with the self, with emotional scenarios, with motion along a path,etc., while still retaining their temporal values. Although straight lines or circles, or time itself for thatmatter, are not by themselves loaded with emotion or intentionality, the image-schematic propertiesof these blends can be opportunistically exploited on-line for further integrations with contextual andbackground knowledge, in order to produce emergent affective meanings.
In our poetic examples we see that the linear pattern is more suitable to function as a material
anchor, which helps ground conceptualization on a perceptual structure. Unlike the timeline, thecircular pattern is not so appropriate to provide spatial landmarks on which to ground temporalrelations. Past, future, periods of human life, duration differences, or remaining time available are notso easily “seen” at a glance in the circle.

Refer ences
1. Coulson, S., Pagán Cánovas, C. Understanding Timelines: Conceptual Metaphor and Conceptual Integration.
Cognitive Semiotics, Special issue on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (forthcoming)
2. Fauconnier, G., Turner, M. The way we think. Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. BasicBooks, New York (2002)
3. Fauconnier, G., Turner, M. Rethinking Metaphor. In: Gibbs, R. (ed.): Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor andThought. Cambridge University Press: New York (2008)
4. Hutchins, E. Material anchors for conceptual blends. Journal of Pragmatics 37 (2005) 1555–1577
5. Lakoff, G. The contemporary theory of metaphor. In: Ortony, A. (ed.): Metaphor and thought. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge (1993)
6. Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
7. Pagán Cánovas, C. Jensen, M. Kavafis’ Candles, Manrique’s Rivers, Life Rounded with a Sleep: Linear andCircular Patterns for Affective Time (in review)
8. Phan, D., Gerth, J., Lee, M., Paepcke, A., Winograd, T. Visual Analysis of Network Flow Data with Timelines
and Event Plots. VizSEC 2007 85-99 (2008)