Cognitive Semantics : Meaning and Cognition

SPACE AND TIME 133
visual perception and of data from descriptions of spatial layout.
2. Time lines in spoken languages
There is a considerable amount of literature on time expressions in spoken
languages, especially on temporal expressions that seem to be derived from
expressions of spatial relations such as the words and phrases in bold in the
following examples.
(1) a. The worst is behind us. back = earlier
b. I am looking ahead to meeting her. front = later
(2) a. in the following years back = later
b. in the preceding years front = earlier
(3) a. Il venait de fermer la porte. come = earlier
[lit. He came from closing the door =]
‘He had just closed the door.’
b. He was going to do it. go = later
(4) a. in the coming years come = later
b. in the years gone by go = earlier
The spatial concept underlying the expressions in (1) is one of an individual
placed in the middle of time and facing the future. Events earlier in time are
conceptualized as being behind the individual, while events later in time are
conceptualized as being in front of the individual. The spatial idea behind the
expressions in (2) is that of years in a line approaching an individual such that
all of the years are in front of the individual. The first years in the line precede
the later years when approaching the individual, i.e. ‘front’ is correlated with
earlier in time; the following years are behind the preceding years and thus
later in time, i.e. ‘back’ (behind the preceding years) is correlated with later in
time. (1b) and (2b) contrast in that ‘front’ represents later in time in (1b) and
earlier in time in (2b).
Words meaning ‘come’ and ‘go’ demonstrate the same contrast, i.e. ‘come’
can be associated with earlier in time as in (3a), or later in time as in (4a), and
‘go’ can be associated with later in time as in (3b), or with earlier in time as in
(4b). This apparent paradox as well as the different values of ‘front’ and ‘back’
in (1) and (2) are usually explained in terms of a difference between two
conceptualizations of time (Clark 1973; Benveniste 1974; Fillmore 1975;