The future is behind you.
With exams looming large and the semester coming to a close, I can't help but look to the future. What's on the horizon?
Er, the other horizon. Turn around; I'm pointing that way.
My linguistics class, cross-listed under everything from computer science to philosophy and really a cognitive science class at heart, amid a discussion of emotions and where they (may or may not) come from, we had a little discussion about metaphors. Dead metaphors, to be precise--meaning the metaphors that are so alive in day-to-day speech that the meanings are universally accepted. My exams aren't really getting bigger, the school semester isn't snapping shut like a bear-trap, and my college course doesn't have a muscle beating blood steadily through its body, but you knew what I meant. The classic example would be, "You were all so sweet to post and let me know that you actually read my blog!" You guys don't actually taste similar to sugar. But it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy seeing your comments.
When I say "universally," what I actually mean is, throughout all of English and, often, worldwide. Dirty is bad. Up is good. Heavy is important. Warm is nice. In every language. To me, that's pretty amazing. Of course, it comes with a logic. I won't go into it entirely, in case you already know or don't care, but these cross-cultural connotations aren't the only ones.
As in so many other language-related areas, some rules have exceptions--light and dark, for instance, with white being the color of death in Japan. The most confounding one to me though is that in a small handful of languages, you don't move forward into the future. I would be able to wrap my mind around sweet having a negative meaning. But looking backward into the future? How does that work?
Perhaps most incredible to me is just how much that so many of these "core" dead metaphors are wildly difficult, even up through now impossible, for my mind to process in the opposite direction. I cannot imagine calling someone a cold person and meaning that he or she is really friendly. This could have something to do with the fact that cold now has an English definition of not-friendly (and various other negative concepts), but I'm pretty sure it's more than that. Despite the fact that I rather like the cold, comparing anything to being cold and considering this good still blows my mind more than I like to admit . . . and warm happens to be one of the really worldwide dead metaphors. If it has any exceptions, my professor didn't mention them.
Above all, though, the future being behind me? I've been trying for a day to make this work in my mind, and I still can't. I write stories, read books and watch shows in which time-travel is either possible or a norm, and I (thought I) stopped thinking of time as linear a long time ago. But in all those fictional media, people travel backward to the past and forward to the future. I suppose that this means I still think of time as a line--disappointing, that. Changing that perspective will have to be a goal.
Until then, I guess I'll just have to look Back to the Future of exams and prospective semi-freedom during winter break. Getting through the month behind won't be a picnic, but if I put my nose to the grindstone I ought to be able to come out on top.
-----------------------------
(Yes, I know some of those are idiomatic expressions. Metaphors all the same. :-p )
Er, the other horizon. Turn around; I'm pointing that way.
My linguistics class, cross-listed under everything from computer science to philosophy and really a cognitive science class at heart, amid a discussion of emotions and where they (may or may not) come from, we had a little discussion about metaphors. Dead metaphors, to be precise--meaning the metaphors that are so alive in day-to-day speech that the meanings are universally accepted. My exams aren't really getting bigger, the school semester isn't snapping shut like a bear-trap, and my college course doesn't have a muscle beating blood steadily through its body, but you knew what I meant. The classic example would be, "You were all so sweet to post and let me know that you actually read my blog!" You guys don't actually taste similar to sugar. But it still made me feel all warm and fuzzy seeing your comments.
When I say "universally," what I actually mean is, throughout all of English and, often, worldwide. Dirty is bad. Up is good. Heavy is important. Warm is nice. In every language. To me, that's pretty amazing. Of course, it comes with a logic. I won't go into it entirely, in case you already know or don't care, but these cross-cultural connotations aren't the only ones.
As in so many other language-related areas, some rules have exceptions--light and dark, for instance, with white being the color of death in Japan. The most confounding one to me though is that in a small handful of languages, you don't move forward into the future. I would be able to wrap my mind around sweet having a negative meaning. But looking backward into the future? How does that work?
Perhaps most incredible to me is just how much that so many of these "core" dead metaphors are wildly difficult, even up through now impossible, for my mind to process in the opposite direction. I cannot imagine calling someone a cold person and meaning that he or she is really friendly. This could have something to do with the fact that cold now has an English definition of not-friendly (and various other negative concepts), but I'm pretty sure it's more than that. Despite the fact that I rather like the cold, comparing anything to being cold and considering this good still blows my mind more than I like to admit . . . and warm happens to be one of the really worldwide dead metaphors. If it has any exceptions, my professor didn't mention them.
Above all, though, the future being behind me? I've been trying for a day to make this work in my mind, and I still can't. I write stories, read books and watch shows in which time-travel is either possible or a norm, and I (thought I) stopped thinking of time as linear a long time ago. But in all those fictional media, people travel backward to the past and forward to the future. I suppose that this means I still think of time as a line--disappointing, that. Changing that perspective will have to be a goal.
Until then, I guess I'll just have to look Back to the Future of exams and prospective semi-freedom during winter break. Getting through the month behind won't be a picnic, but if I put my nose to the grindstone I ought to be able to come out on top.
-----------------------------
(Yes, I know some of those are idiomatic expressions. Metaphors all the same. :-p )