Travel in grammar

Human beings have evolved grammars along with perception for three-dimensional space. Speech and language belong with the estimable heights, widths, and depths or lengths, just as the human need for fresh water, air, good clothing, and a decent roof.

In childhood, we people mostly first learn telling where things or persons are, and the ability to tell the hour comes after. Place and time remain a natural association throughout lifespan: for a thing to take place, there has to be time.

To learn to walk, we people do not require anybody to describe, give rules or definitions. Grammar is a standard and everyday ability too, and there are a few words quite often in use for spatiotemporal whereabouts, as "on", "in", and "to".

Humans have evolved grammars on the surface of planet Earth, and this is where we can begin. In everyday life, we quite naturally map our environments cognitively. Most human minds build a perspective for the neighborhood or vicinity, in familiar settings. This perspective has been called a cognitive map.

To see how we could do cognitive variables for grammar, let us try a mild brainteaser. If we compare our answers with family, friends, or other people, and the results are consistent, the mapping is natural for us, even if the idea has not been well known: our brainteaser is intuitive. We have four short words and four patterns.

We try to couple the patterns and the words. One match is done for us:
TO — I have thought.

Here are the four short words:
AT (as at a mark);
TO (as to a place);
ON (as on a ground);
IN (as in an area).

Here we have the four patterns:
A. I think.
It is my opinion that…
Generally, I believe it is…

B. I am thinking.
I am considering now, deliberating
I am wondering, if…

C. I have thought.
It has been some time now, that I reckon;
It has been my opinion that…

D. I have been thinking.
It has been some time now, that I am considering…
It has been some time now I am wondering if…

Good luck!