The time it takes

Abstract In this chapter we investigate the linguistic means used to code the internal temporal structure of various events, states, situations, etc. in French and English translation equivalent pairs. Holding the assumption that language structure and use reflect general principles of cognition, including types of figurative reasoning and pragmatic inferencing, we anticipate that contrasts in form are suggestive of distinctions in conceptualization. Using bilingual texts, we demonstrate that in a substantial number of cases, English uses a construction of the form begin/start + V-ing/to V (henceforth: inceptive verb construction ) to express the same content as French does with a single verb (or V only ) construction . We account for this difference by proposing that what is coded explicitly in French may be achieved through conceptual metonymy in English.