The Dominance of “Moving-Time” Model in the Metaphorical Perception of Time: A Cognitive-Linguistic Study in Sarhaddi Balochi Dialect

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Amirali Khoshkhounejad ¹

Abbas Ali Ahangar ²

¹ Department of English Language Teaching, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.

² Professor of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.

10.22067/jlkd.2025.96461.1357

Abstract

The metaphorical conceptualization of time constitutes a pivotal domain in cognitive linguistics, illustrating how humans construct abstract concepts through concrete spatial experiences. According to Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), two primary patterns (Moving-Ego and Moving-Time) have been identified for representing temporal concepts. Drawing upon the classic “Next Wednesday’s Meeting” paradigm (McGlone & Harding, 1998), this study investigated the metaphorical understanding of time in the Sarhadi Balochi dialect. The statistical population comprised 121 native speakers of Sarhadi Balochi (students at the University of Sistan and Baluchestan). Data were analyzed using the chi-square (χ²) test in SPSS software. Findings revealed that in a neutral context, the moving-time pattern is significantly dominant (p<0.001), indicating speakers’ tendency to conceptualize themselves as stationary entities toward whom events move as dynamic agents. Furthermore, results demonstrated that contextual priming (via contextualizing sentences) exerts a significant influence on the interpretation of the ambiguous phrase “Next Wednesday’s Meeting” (p<0.001), thereby supporting the dynamic nature of linguistic cognition. In contrast, gender showed no significant effect on temporal metaphor comprehension (p=0.36). These findings suggest that the tribal social structure and the cultural emphasis on historical traditions in Sarhadi Balochi society may play a decisive role in shaping this cognitive pattern.

Keywords

Time

Metaphor

Moving-Ego

Moving-Time

Sarhadi Balochi

Cognitive Linguistics

Subjects

• Dialectology

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