From Dusk till Dawn: Conceptualizing Sunrise and Sunset in the Florentine Codex (2025)

Spatial mapping is frequently applied in the language used for temporal occurrences. Using corpus analysis tools available with AntConc software, this project examines how spatial mapping, and the associated moving-time and moving-ego metaphor models were or were not applied in the Spanish text of the Florentine Codex (c. 1577) in reference to the periods of sunrise and sunset. An analysis of word choice, grammatical category, and syntax reveals the cultural dynamics present in the post-conquest Aztec Empire and the conception of time encoded in the structure of Spanish language.