Crosslinguistic Image Schema Differential Hypothesis Clarifies Non-Prototypical and Polysemous Spatial Preposition ‘on’ for L2 Learners

Abstract

Abstract A key question for linguistics involves how to determine and account for expressions of non-prototypical spatial relationships between languages. To address this issue, Crosslinguistic Image Schema Differential (CISD) hypothesis is introduced to examine various uses of the English preposition on produced by L2 (second language) learners. Data collection consisted of a grammar test designed to elicit and measure participants’ knowledge of the English preposition on by completing cloze sentences in English, translating these sentences into the L1 (first language), and then drawing visual images of the sentences presented as redescriptions of perceptual events, i.e., image schemas. The most remarkable findings were that two space-relational types (‘encirclement with contact’ and ‘at an edge’) and one image schema (‘concave surface’) were almost completely lacking in the Japanese learners of English (JLEs) who participated in this study. This investigation indicates that simple explicit explanations are possible utilizing the CISD hypothesis.