Why do metaphors of space help us understand time?

By Rosa Illán Castillo, CNRS Postdoctoral Researcher, laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (DDL-Lyon) / Investigadora Posdoctoral-Fundación Séneca, Lingüística Cognitiva, Universidad de Murcia

Expressions linking space to time are a common part of our day to day lives. You might say the morning “flew by”, or that school exams are “fast approaching”. Right now, you might say summer is “just around the corner”, while anyone with the vaguest awareness of Game of Thrones will have heard the phrase “winter is coming”.

Unlike the physical space we inhabit, time cannot be seen or touched, though it structures every moment of our waking lives.

How, then, did humans come to talk so effortlessly about such a nebulous, abstract concept? The key lies in the way we project…

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