What is a time-as-moving-object metaphor?

What is a time-as-moving-object metaphor?

Definition
	A conventional metaphor in which time is represented as a moving object in ways such as the following:
	future times come present times arrive past times go far future times follow near future times

Examples
	Here are some examples in English:
	The time will come when... The time has long since gone when... Coming up in the weeks ahead... Next week and the week following it...

Generic
	A time-as-moving-object metaphor is a kind of
	What is a metaphor for time?

Source
	Lakoff, G. and Johnson 1980

Context for this page:

Concept module: time-as-moving-object metaphor
In modular book: Metaphors in English, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H. Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Lexicon

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 September 1998