Chen, Jenn-Yeu

Huang, Xishan

Liang, Bishan

O'Seaghdha, Padraig G.

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UC MercedProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science SocietyTitleEnglish and Mandarin Speakers May Think about Time Differently, but for a Different ReasonPermalinkhttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/0w11p20cJournalProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 33(33)ISSN1069-7977AuthorsChen, Jenn-YeuLiang, BishanO'Seaghdha, Padraig G.et al.Publication Date2011 Peer reviewedeScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital LibraryUniversity of CaliforniaEnglish and Mandarin Speakers May Think about Time Differently,but for a Different ReasonJenn-Yeu ChenDepartment of Psychology, National Cheng Kung University, TaiwanBishan LiangDepartment of Psychology, South-China Normal University, ChinaPadraig G. O’SeaghdhaDepartment of Psychology, Lehigh University, USAXishan HuangDepartment of Psychology, South-China Normal University, ChinaAbstract: Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently? Boroditsky (2001) claimed they do,but the claim did not stand in three failed replications (Chen, 2007; January & Kako, 2007; Tse & Altarriba, 2008).Recently she and her colleagues reported data from a different task to support the claim (Boroditsky, Fuhrman,& McCormick, 2010). We repeated their study with English speakers in US, Mandarin speakers in Taiwan andMandarin speakers in China. The Mandarin speakers in Taiwan showed an opposite pattern of results than theEnglish speakers, but the Mandarin speakers in China performed similarly to the English speakers. These resultsare interpreted as reflecting differences in orthographic directionality adopted in different linguistic communities,uniformly horizontal in US and China, but horizontal mixed with vertical in Taiwan. English and Mandarin speakersmay think about time differently, but not because of the different metaphorical usages in the languages.599

English and Mandarin Speakers May Think about Time Differently, but for a Different Reason

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