How to determine if 先 refers to future or past events?


I had previously asked something similar [in the
past](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/42199/why-can-%e5%85%88-be-
used-to-discuss-future-events), and was convinced for a while that the the
question was caused by a misquote. While that could still be part of it, I
think I'm now able to distill the question down to its essence. Examples are
from Tatoeba.

* * *

**Side assumptions #1: 先 can either be さき or さっき**

I'm not sure about this, but both are listed as 先 in Jisho.org

**Side assumptions #2: when written as さっき in kana, it always refer to
something in the **past**.**

> **さっき** 電話が鳴ってた The telephone was ringing **just now**

> **さっき** なぜかマイクが入らなかった For some reason the microphone didn't work
> **earlier**.

* * *

Now to the bulk of the question. Why can 先｛さき｝ also refer to an event in the
future, and how do you tell when it does or does not?

> **先** の事など誰にも予想できない You never can tell what'll happen in the **future**

> 卒業式は二ヶ月 **先** だ The graduation is two months **ahead**.

This is confusing for me as I used to think that 先 always referred to the past
because of words like 先週 and 先日.

To further add to my confusion,

> ５年先を見る (5 years **after** )

> ５年先に生まれた (5 years **ago** )

* * *

What is going on here? Are my assumptions correct? Is there a mechanism to
determine if the topic in question is in the future or past, or can it only be
determined via context?




OK this is probably something between a comment and an answer. I'm probably
going to get something wrong. So from the native speakers please point out how
I'm getting this wrong.

That said, I too struggled for a long time understanding 先. The word seemed
contradictory to me. And, if I look it up in one of my dictionaries (角川国語辞典) I
see the following definitions:

  1. 前の部分。先頭。
  2. 進んでいく方。先方。
  3. 前途。将来。
  4. はし。末。
  5. 過去。以前。
  6. 相手。先方。
  7. 目的の所。 到着する場所。
  8. より早く位置をとること。
  9. 先物。

It would seem that definitions 3 and 5 contradict one another. But, I think
that's only if you try to take this word a bit too literally. Generally,
context should point out the desired meaning. And, it's possible something
could be _translated_ into English in two different ways depending on how one
thinks about things.

Yet overall, for myself, what I've found helpful with this seemingly
confounding word is to think of it along of the lines of _that which lies in
front/ahead_.

When you're talking about events that haven't yet happened, then they still
_lie in front_ of us. Hence they are in the _future_. This would be like your
example sentence

> 先の事など誰にも予想できない

You don't predict what already happened; you predict what has yet to come. So
what lies _ahead_ is the future.

It's much the same with

> 卒業式は二ヶ月先だ.

Then there are set phrases like 先週 and 先日 where it's perhaps just best to
memorize them and to try to avoid overanalyzing them.

With expressions like

[code]

    ５年先を見る 
    
[/code]

and

[code]

    ５年先に生まれた
    
[/code]

I would take two things into consideration: (1) the form of the verb and (2)
the logic of the sentence.

  * If the verb is _non-past_ then 先 most likely refers to something yet to come (something that lies ahead of us).
  * If the verb is _past_ , then most likely you're talking about something that _preceded_ the moment now.

Regardless of what the particular meaning of 先 might be, it's a relative term,
relative to a particular point of view that needs to be discerned. So that's
what needs to be teased out: what's the perspective of this sentence.

As I've already mentioned above, it's also perhaps useful to learn certain
fixed expressions and then be able to extrapolate from them. For example,

[code]

    お先に
    
[/code]

means, _After you!_ not _me first!_

Shift the context slightly and

[code]

    お先に失礼したいのですが
    
[/code]

which means _I'd like to leave before you_ (well, really it's an announcement,
not a request). Getting hung up on the _before/after_ aspect here is to miss
the point. お先に refers to the person being spoken to; in a manner they take
_precedence_.

I would think the best thing to do is to go old-school and open up one of
those relics of the past, a printed and bound Japanese-English dictionary.
They're organized very well. They often provide a wealth of example sentences
under headers for the different senses of a particular entry. Memorizing these
for words like 先 can help build your intuition about how to discern the
meaning and contexts.

Regarding on-line or electronic dictionaries, they tend not to clearly
organize example sentences (if at all) in a manner that facilitates teasing
out nuances. (If someone knows of a good on-line dictionary that does so,
please rely that information in the comments.) For example, Jisho.org provides
sentences but not nicely organized by subheadings or different senses of the
same word. My Apple Japanese Dictionary does a bit better job, but I still
find my print version has much better examples.




OK this is probably something between a comment and an answer. I'm probably
going to get something wrong. So from the native speakers please point out how
I'm getting this wrong.

That said, I too struggled for a long time understanding 先. The word seemed
contradictory to me. And, if I look it up in one of my dictionaries (角川国語辞典) I
see the following definitions:

  1. 前の部分。先頭。
  2. 進んでいく方。先方。
  3. 前途。将来。
  4. はし。末。
  5. 過去。以前。
  6. 相手。先方。
  7. 目的の所。 到着する場所。
  8. より早く位置をとること。
  9. 先物。

It would seem that definitions 3 and 5 contradict one another. But, I think
that's only if you try to take this word a bit too literally. Generally,
context should point out the desired meaning. And, it's possible something
could be _translated_ into English in two different ways depending on how one
thinks about things.

Yet overall, for myself, what I've found helpful with this seemingly
confounding word is to think of it along of the lines of _that which lies in
front/ahead_.

When you're talking about events that haven't yet happened, then they still
_lie in front_ of us. Hence they are in the _future_. This would be like your
example sentence

> 先の事など誰にも予想できない

You don't predict what already happened; you predict what has yet to come. So
what lies _ahead_ is the future.

It's much the same with

> 卒業式は二ヶ月先だ.

Then there are set phrases like 先週 and 先日 where it's perhaps just best to
memorize them and to try to avoid overanalyzing them.

With expressions like

[code]

    ５年先を見る 
    
[/code]

and

[code]

    ５年先に生まれた
    
[/code]

I would take two things into consideration: (1) the form of the verb and (2)
the logic of the sentence.

  * If the verb is _non-past_ then 先 most likely refers to something yet to come (something that lies ahead of us).
  * If the verb is _past_ , then most likely you're talking about something that _preceded_ the moment now.

Regardless of what the particular meaning of 先 might be, it's a relative term,
relative to a particular point of view that needs to be discerned. So that's
what needs to be teased out: what's the perspective of this sentence.

As I've already mentioned above, it's also perhaps useful to learn certain
fixed expressions and then be able to extrapolate from them. For example,

[code]

    お先に
    
[/code]

means, _After you!_ not _me first!_

Shift the context slightly and

[code]

    お先に失礼したいのですが
    
[/code]

which means _I'd like to leave before you_ (well, really it's an announcement,
not a request). Getting hung up on the _before/after_ aspect here is to miss
the point. お先に refers to the person being spoken to; in a manner they take
_precedence_.

I would think the best thing to do is to go old-school and open up one of
those relics of the past, a printed and bound Japanese-English dictionary.
They're organized very well. They often provide a wealth of example sentences
under headers for the different senses of a particular entry. Memorizing these
for words like 先 can help build your intuition about how to discern the
meaning and contexts.

Regarding on-line or electronic dictionaries, they tend not to clearly
organize example sentences (if at all) in a manner that facilitates teasing
out nuances. (If someone knows of a good on-line dictionary that does so,
please rely that information in the comments.) For example, Jisho.org provides
sentences but not nicely organized by subheadings or different senses of the
same word. My Apple Japanese Dictionary does a bit better job, but I still
find my print version has much better examples.

