Horizon

Metaphors of time

Just in the last day or two I'd noticed some of the linguistics mailing lists in a flurry of activity over the idea that, in a language called Aymara, time metaphors are reversed from what has generally been considered the universal "future in front" and "past behind" orientation.

This could be a big deal in cognitive linguistics, which appears to hinge so much on the concept of metaphor, and perhaps many other slants of linguistics, which tend to hinge so much on the concept of language universals. It's reminiscent of the revelation that Pirahã has no number words above two, for instance, which has caused a similar stir.

So I was very interested to find this Language Log post, itself a synthesis of the surely enormous barrage of email they've received on the subject lately, which makes some surprising obervations about many other languages, including English, which use this "reversed" metaphor for time.

I may be cyncical, but I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to see such flashes in the pan now that the example of Pirahã has ignited this search for counterexamples to apparent or presumed linguistic universals. Many of the linguists who wrote to Language Log appear to have known for some time, and apparently considered it unremarkable, that certain languages do not follow this expected metaphorical orientation. But now the hunt is on. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but it is likely to produce many more underwhelming discoveries in the near future.

Posted by Alan Hogue at June 15, 2006 10:58 PM