In cognitive linguistics this is called conceptual metaphor. If you're interested in it, read "Metaphors We Live By" by Lakoff and Johnson. My favorite conceptu

In cognitive linguistics this is called conceptual metaphor. If you're interested in it, read "Metaphors We Live By" by Lakoff and Johnson. My favorite conceptual metaphor experiment (I think by Lera Boroditsky) was based on a question like: The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday but was moved forward 2 days. What day is it on now? Because this uses the common "time is motion" conceptual metaphor, if you ask it to people on a moving bus, they are more likely to say "Friday" than are people sitting at a bus stop. The people who are in motion are more likely to conceptualize themselves moving through time and "moving the meeting forward" means forward in their direction of motion. The people who are not in motion conceptualize time as moving past them, and "moving the meeting forward" means forward towards them, making them more likely to say "Monday".