Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Semantics and cognition : Spatiotemporal metaphors and time perception in L2 users

Athanasopoulos, Panos LU and Bylund, Emanuel (2024) p.545-558
Abstract
This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence for a universal metaphoric structure such as TIME IS SPACE and its effects on temporal cognition in L2 users. The chapter covers previous experimental evidence that lends support to the psychological reality of the TIME IS SPACE metaphor, while also revealing cross-linguistic differences in how this fundamental metaphor is instantiated across the world's languages. It then reviews research that has extended this exploration to the SLA arena. While studies specifically focusing on L2 users are still scarce, several promising lines of enquiry have been opened, showing that bilinguals may flexibly switch between different temporal frames depending on their language of operation.... (More)
This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence for a universal metaphoric structure such as TIME IS SPACE and its effects on temporal cognition in L2 users. The chapter covers previous experimental evidence that lends support to the psychological reality of the TIME IS SPACE metaphor, while also revealing cross-linguistic differences in how this fundamental metaphor is instantiated across the world's languages. It then reviews research that has extended this exploration to the SLA arena. While studies specifically focusing on L2 users are still scarce, several promising lines of enquiry have been opened, showing that bilinguals may flexibly switch between different temporal frames depending on their language of operation. Preliminary research has also shown that L2 proficiency and age of L2 acquisition appear to modulate the extent to which temporal cognition patterns may be restructured as a function of L2 acquisition of a language with different metaphoric structures from the first. The chapter ends by calling for a systematic investigation of L2 user cognition in this area, as it can contribute to our understanding of both L2 acquisition phenomena related to conceptual representation, as well as to our understanding of the malleable nature of human conceptual representation itself. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Morphosyntax, and Semantics
editor
Ionin, Tania ; Montrul, Silvina and Slabakova, Roumyana
pages
545 - 558
publisher
Routledge
ISBN
9781003412373
9781032535005
DOI
10.4324/9781003412373-45
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dbc69a5c-d11d-4691-9a13-38d050db0413
date added to LUP
2024-05-07 14:03:45
date last changed
2024-05-16 11:40:33
@inbook{dbc69a5c-d11d-4691-9a13-38d050db0413,
  abstract     = {{This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence for a universal metaphoric structure such as TIME IS SPACE and its effects on temporal cognition in L2 users. The chapter covers previous experimental evidence that lends support to the psychological reality of the TIME IS SPACE metaphor, while also revealing cross-linguistic differences in how this fundamental metaphor is instantiated across the world's languages. It then reviews research that has extended this exploration to the SLA arena. While studies specifically focusing on L2 users are still scarce, several promising lines of enquiry have been opened, showing that bilinguals may flexibly switch between different temporal frames depending on their language of operation. Preliminary research has also shown that L2 proficiency and age of L2 acquisition appear to modulate the extent to which temporal cognition patterns may be restructured as a function of L2 acquisition of a language with different metaphoric structures from the first. The chapter ends by calling for a systematic investigation of L2 user cognition in this area, as it can contribute to our understanding of both L2 acquisition phenomena related to conceptual representation, as well as to our understanding of the malleable nature of human conceptual representation itself.}},
  author       = {{Athanasopoulos, Panos and Bylund, Emanuel}},
  booktitle    = {{The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, Morphosyntax, and Semantics}},
  editor       = {{Ionin, Tania and Montrul, Silvina and Slabakova, Roumyana}},
  isbn         = {{9781003412373}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{545--558}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  title        = {{Semantics and cognition : Spatiotemporal metaphors and time perception in L2 users}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003412373-45}},
  doi          = {{10.4324/9781003412373-45}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}