moved up a week
mm
Which direction is that?
Later or earlier?
--
Posters should say where they live, and for which area
they are asking questions. I was born and then lived in
Western Pa. 10 years
Indianapolis 7 years
Chicago 6 years
Brooklyn, NY 12 years
Baltimore 26 years
Barb Knox
mm <NOPSAM...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> The election date was moved up a week.
>
> Which direction is that?
>
> Later or earlier?
Earlier, usually.
"Moved back a week" is always later.
"Moved forward a week" is more often earlier than later.
"Moved ahead a week" is thoroughly ambiguous.
Ugh.
--
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| BBB b \ Barbara at LivingHistory stop co stop uk
| B B aa rrr b |
| BBB a a r bbb | Quidquid latine dictum sit,
| B B a a r b b | altum videtur.
| BBB aa a r bbb |
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Ian Jackson
Knox <s...@sig.below> writes
>In article <99m8j5hmm9n7kd6q4...@4ax.com>,
> mm <NOPSAM...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>> The election date was moved up a week.
>>
>> Which direction is that?
>>
>> Later or earlier?
>
>Earlier, usually.
>"Moved back a week" is always later.
>"Moved forward a week" is more often earlier than later.
>"Moved ahead a week" is thoroughly ambiguous.
>
>Ugh.
>
--
Ian
Pat Durkin
news:99m8j5hmm9n7kd6q4...@4ax.com...
> The election date was moved up a week.
>
> Which direction is that?
>
> Later or earlier?
They are all somewhat ambiguous, but--
I think that "earlier" meaning for "moved up" is OK, since one can
look at a calendar and see the actual direction, at least during a
month. Another clue for orientation might be "Up close and personal"
(from TV sports commentators). "Up", of course, being the operational
direction, which is "closer (nearer)" to the viewer/speaker in space.
And here, "closer" in time.
--
Pat Durkin
durkinpa at msn.com
Wisconsin
John Lawler
> "mm" <NOPSAMmm2...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
The usual Up/Down metaphor mapping for time is
that Up is closer to Now, since things appear to
get taller as we approach them (or they us), as in
"going up to" somebody, i.e, approaching them.
And time is perceived either as a path we travel,
or as a series of events approaching us as we
stand still (it doesn't really matter which one;
they're more or less identical from the
metaphorical point of view).
So an event (always in the future) can be "moved
up" if it gets closer to the present. Note that the
opposite is not normally "move down" but rather
"move back", as Ian noted.
-John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue
"It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree.
For if, by ill luck, people understood each other,
they would never agree." - Charles Baudelaire