An examination of the lexical structure of languages throws some light on the 
relations between various aspects of human conceptualization.It has been 
theorized that the linguistic forms most closely associated semantically with the 
expression of relations - case inflections in languages exhibiting this category- are 
originally and basically spatial in meaning.A 
separate class of words aligns the vocabulary of sequential time with that of 
intensity, so repetition of the same activity again and again (to a European) is 
rather the intensification of a single activity.Spatial terms are also freely used in the expression of other, more abstract 
relationships: higher temperature, higher quality, lower expectations, summit of a 
career, far removed from any sensible course of action, a distant 
relationship, close friends, over and above what had been said.Although time is a continuum, people readily divide it up into bits and record it 
rather as they do materials extended in space: five years, three months, six seconds.An American Indian language is reported not to do this nearly so 
readily; it uses cardinal numbers only for discrete, countable objects.Certain differences in cultural
attitudes and world outlook are said to accompany this kind of linguistic 
difference.Spatial relations and 
their expression seem to lie very deep in the content of vocabulary.