Temporal Frames of Reference Based on Interval Effect

Drawing on temporal frames of reference, this study addresses two constructions:biān A biān B ‘side A side B’ and yòu A yòu B ‘again A again B’.It is discovered that biān-biān as a simultaneity frame emphasizes durative synchronization between pairwise actions, and cannot structure spatial entities, states or properties; yòu-yòu as another simultaneity frame, by contrast, emphasizes simultaneity out of successive iteration, and can structure spatial entities, states or properties.Despite these differences, either biān-biān or yòu-yòu manifests the identical interval effect, i.e., the closer the utterance distance between biān and biān or yòu and yòu is, the more these two simultaneity frames are instantiated.This fact suggests that linguistic features in form regulate the formation of a conceptual frame.