Building bridges between conceptual metaphor theory, L2 speakers’ perception, and pedagogical practice

ABSTRACT

Within Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) has focused on conceptual representation and has been applied to the study of emotion since the 1980s. Since the study of language is a powerful asset for understanding how speakers conceptualize emotions, examining frequent yet difficult linguistic constructions to express one’s emotions in the L2 seems, therefore, a relevant task, especially for the L2 teaching-learning process. By looking at the description of the semantic relation between the literal and figurative meaning of the Spanish change-of-state construction ‘ponerse + adjective’, the present study aims to offer a CMT-based analysis of two rather neglected metaphors in the CMT literature: EMOTIONS ARE CLOTHES and A SPONTANEOUS AND TEMPORARY CHANGE OF STATE IS A SPONTANEOUS AND TEMPORARY CHANGE OF LOCATION. Along with the CMT analysis, empirical data seeking evidence of the psychological reality of metaphorical thoughts were collected from two surveys. Participants were 36 intermediate Spanish/L2 students from a US-based college. In light of our findings, we designed a cognitive linguistics-informed pedagogical proposal that has been implemented in a follow-up study. This research corroborates the idea that building bridges between theoretical and applied disciplines is paramount for investigations in both fields to evolve.  

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive linguistics
• conceptual metaphor theory
• emotion
• L2 teaching and learning
• ponerse + adjective
• psychological reality
• cognitive-based pedagogical proposal

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Antonio Barcelona, Reyes Llopis-García and Irene Alonso-Aparicio for their helpful comments on the original version of this manuscript and for their guidance. I remain, however, solely responsible for any weaknesses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Appendices and data availability statement

Appendices have been uploaded to the following Open Science Framework URL: https://osf.io/527z4/?view_only=2998360a615c41e0bc2ff3ca9236ed76. The data set that supports the findings of this study is openly available in said link.

Notes

¹ According to VanPatten’s (1993, 2004) Input Processing model, L2 learners possess psychological strategies (Principles) on which they rely during input processing, and these respond to principles which guide form and meaning connections.

² Kövecses (2020) tackles more recently some of the limitations of standard CMT and proposes an extended view offering new insights into the study of metaphor.

³ See Martín-Gascón (2022b) for a review of a change of temporary state is a change of temporary location metaphor in this type of construction.

⁴ The didactic proposal has already been implemented in a classroom quasi-experimental study with a pretest/post-test/delayed post-test design with A2+/B1 (CEFR standards) students at the university level whose native language was English and the L2 was Spanish, as they learned how to conceptualize and express their emotions.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Government under [Grant FPU17/04542]; and by the Fulbright Commission under the Fulbright Predoctoral Research Grant. The present study has been approved by the IRB at Columbia University (Columbia University Human Subjects) [AAAQ7467 M01Y02] under the research project led by Dr. Reyes Llopis-García and by the Ethics Committee at Universidad de Córdoba.

Notes on contributors

Beatriz Martín-Gascón

Beatriz Martín-Gascón holds a PhD in Languages and Cultures (Cum Laude and International mention) from the Universidad de Córdoba, in Spain. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she teaches Pragmatics and Advanced Grammar. She received a BA’s degree in English and French studies (minoring in German) from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2016, and three MA’s degrees in Applied Linguistics (Essex University, 2017, thanks to a “La Caixa” scholarship), Training of Foreign Language Teaching (English) (VIU, 2018, thanks to a “Mindán Manero” scholarship), and Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (UIMP, 2019). She has been a visiting researcher at Columbia University (New York) from January to August 2021, thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, as well as at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (Geneva, Switzerland) from October to December 2021. Since 2015, she has worked as language tutor, trainee, and teacher in different universities (including Davis, California; Essex, the UK; I. Cervantes, Lisbon; Loyola and UCO, Córdoba; Teachers’ College and Columbia University). Her research interests include Applied Cognitive Linguistics, Metaphor, Emotion, and L2 Teaching and Learning.