Spoken languages are undeniably influenced by their written forms, but given that, until the latter half of the 20th century, the vast majority of Chinese speakers have always been illiterate, I'm sceptical about looking for such an explanation for such a common class of expressions (though you've now made me very curious what expressions were present in Classical Chinese). Added to this is the fact that there is not a single orientation to written Chinese. Modern books tend to be written left-to-right, then up-to-down; pre-modern texts are generally up-to-down, right-to-left--but there is plenty of variation. (In one of his books, Jonathan Spence reproduces a mid-19th-century poster whose overall arrangement seems to be radiating to either side of a central vertical axis.)
If a character were really "behind" another character, you wouldn't be able to read it, would you? Characters on the same page can only be to the left, right, above, or below the other characters. Describing some as "in front" or "behind" results from the application of a the metaphor; it can't be the source of one. Given a string of items, there are rationales for making either end the "front". If you think of yourself as standing within on atop the current item, then the items immediately to either side could both be equally well described as being "in front of" the items that are "further away". That is, from C, both B could be "in front of" A and D could be "in front of" E simultaneously!
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2004-06-10 10:32 am (UTC)If a character were really "behind" another character, you wouldn't be able to read it, would you? Characters on the same page can only be to the left, right, above, or below the other characters. Describing some as "in front" or "behind" results from the application of a the metaphor; it can't be the source of one. Given a string of items, there are rationales for making either end the "front". If you think of yourself as standing within on atop the current item, then the items immediately to either side could both be equally well described as being "in front of" the items that are "further away". That is, from C, both B could be "in front of" A and D could be "in front of" E simultaneously!