Ego-perspective and field-based frames of reference: Temporal meanings of front in Japanese, Wolof, and Aymara

This article analyzes temporal frames of reference that are metaphorically related to experiences of movement and location. Two path-configured temporal frames of reference are distinguished, both of which employ a metaphorical front/behind contrast: field-based (perspective neutral) and ego-perspective (perspective specific). Claims are illustrated with data from Wolof (Niger-Congo, West Africa), Japanese, and Aymara (Jaqi, South America). The paper focuses on a field-based analysis (akin to absolute) of deictically neutral uses of front/behind terms, and defends it against a possible analysis as intrinsic. Front in the field-based frame of reference maps onto ‘earlier’, and behind maps onto ‘later’. An ego-perspective frame of reference generally has the opposite orientation so that front maps onto ‘future’ and behind maps onto ‘past’. Both of these patterns seem to be crosslinguistically typical. However, there is one well-documented case of ego facing the past—that of Aymara. I argue that in the Aymara system, ego's orientation is aligned with that of a field-based frame of reference: in Aymara the past is metaphorically in front of ego partly because the past is a special case of an earlier time that is metaphorically in front of a later time.