Re: CHAT: "the future," sci-fi, Quecha (Le Guin)
From: | Muke Tever <alrivera@...> |
Date: | Sunday, June 30, 2002, 11:42 |
From: "J Y S Czhang" <czhang23@...>
> "We know where the future is. It's in front of us. Right? It lies before
> us - a great future lies before us - we stride forward confidently into it,
> every commencement, every election year. And we know where the past is.
> Behind us, right? So that we have to turn around to see it, and that
> interrupts our progress ever forward into the future, so we don't really much
> like to do it.
Even though English doesn't do this.. "[be]fore" and "aft[er]" (in front of and
behind) go with "before" and "after" (earlier and later).
Spanish does the same thing: "antes" means "before" (both 'in front of' and
'earlier').
So why *do* we see "what happened before now" as abaft us, and not before us?
*Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/
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