Another point that Boroditsky brings up in her article is that 'representations of time vary in many...ways around the world.' She compares English speakers to those in the Andes who speak Aymara. People who speak English see the future 'ahead' and the past 'behind', to the point that when we speak of the future we lean slightly forward, and when speaking of the past we lean back. Those who speak Aymara express the future as behind and the past ahead, and lean their bodies accordingly.

I keep thinking about that because I find it hard to grasp. Does it mean when the Aymara speakers are walking, they have a sense of moving toward the past?


*(referenced in yesterday's post about how language shapes our perception of reality)