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

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.