1051: Time and Space in Language Oct 25, 2017

The sorts of connotations that people have with words in a language will inevitably change the way that the words—or derivatives thereof, after enough time—are used. Reviewing etymology, this is quite common as societies change, such as why 'aryan' means what it does today, in many ways opposite to what it used to. There is one relationship, however, that is fairly consistent over millennia, and it is that of space and time. Sometimes that happens for natural reasons, like the joint source of the words 'time' and 'tide', but this happens in grammar as well. For instance, prepositions that relate to space like 'before' (e.g. "kneel before royalty") also relate to time (e.g. "she arrived before him"); sometimes both interpretations are possible without any context, e.g. "he was standing before her". This is common across languages as well, in which—almost always—the future is associated with words that mean "in front of" and the past is accordingly associated with words that mean "behind". Generally this is ascribed to the fact that people usually move forward in space relative to them, while they also, obviously, experience time. Indeed, even the verb 'to go' can indicate motion, but it also conveys the future, e.g. "he is going to go home soon". More will be posted on this topic, and comparisons to this occurrence in other languages in the next few days.