Anteriority

In Norwegian as for the frame of reference, the front is determined by the frame of reference of the viewer, when we talk about anteriority. If we say in Norwegian "Clare stands in front of the museum" we mean that from the viewer's point of view Clare is standing in front of it, and then it is likewise whether the front of the museum itself is turned towards her or the back of it is.

We have "fremfor" describing anteriority in the physical sense having a physical location, also it describes prioritization, so it is a conceptual expression too. For instance we could have the sentence "Hun valgte sjokolade fremfor iskrem", which means "she chose chocolate rather than ice cream". So in this sentence we have a concept of what one prefers. When "fremfor" is used as a location physically it denotes anteriority. An example would be "en bil står fremfor huset", meaning "a car stands in front of the house". Here the located object is "bilen" and the reference object is "huset". So physically the car is in front of the house from the frame of reference of the viewer.

"Fremom" denotes anteriority in Norwegian. An example could be the sentence "Barna springer fremom foreldrene", meaning "the children run ahead of the parents". In the physical sense I would suggest these two variants to be expressing not only that the children in this example are running in front of the parents, but that there is a goal here. All are heading towards a place, which is the goal, and therefore the located object running in front of the reference object is also ahead, it is leading the path towards the goal. We have locomotion here, namely the running, a place, a goal and a path, and the action is not finished, so there is atelicity involved. An example of the conceptual use of these two is "Han valgte hus fremom leilighet", which means "He chose house rather than apartment". "Foran" is the perhaps most common preposition to express anteriority in Norwegian. An example could be "En gutt står foran huset", which means "a boy stands in front of the house". The located object is "en gutt" and the reference object is "huset". We have a physical location here, and the relation between the objects is the one of anteriority. "Mye trening før fotballkampen", which means "much practice before the football match", so as we can see "foran" can also denote time. Here "foran" is used in the conceptual sense and there is no physical location.