ABSTRACT
As in other languages, Japanese relies on certain terms about space in order to describe temporal relations. Temporal relations are symbolized via the lived and embodied experience of metaphors of physical location. This chapter provides how temporal expressions in Japanese are encoded by the bodily sense of place and location. It explores some terms possessing both spatial and temporal meanings. Verbs of coming and going, when added to a gerund, can metaphorically convert spatial meanings into abstract conceptions of time. Other idiomatic expressions of abstraction rooted in spatial relationships built up through lived experience can be enumerated. The particle ni has the spatial meanings of 'point of contact', indicating a place toward which someone or something moves, or locational existence. But it has other semantic derivatives: point in time; indirect object; source/agent; and purpose.
