Horizontal mapping of time-related words in first and second language

TL;DR

This study shows that people associate time-related words with left or right directions in both their first and second languages, with the strength of this link depending on language proficiency.

Contribution

It reveals that time-space associations in a second language depend on individual proficiency levels.

Findings

Time-related words show a consistent left-right spatial bias in both first and second languages.

Higher second language proficiency correlates with stronger time-space associations.

The spatial congruency effect was observed across different language pairs.

Abstract

The existence of a consistent horizontal spatial-conceptual mapping for words denoting time is a well-established phenomenon. For example, words related to the past or future (e.g., yesterday/tomorrow) facilitate respective leftward/rightward attentional shifts and responses, suggesting the visual-spatial grounding of temporal semantics, at least in the native language (L1). To examine whether similar horizontal bias also accompanies access to time-related words in a second language (L2), we tested 53 Russian-English (Experiment 1) and 48 German-English (Experiment 2) bilinguals, who classified randomly presented L1 and L2 time-related words as past- or future-related using left or right response keys. The predicted spatial congruency effect was registered in all tested languages and, furthermore, was positively associated with higher L2 proficiency in Experiment 2. Our findings (1) support the notion of horizontal spatial-conceptual mapping in diverse L1s, (2) demonstrate the existence of a similar spatial bias when processing temporal words in L2, and (3) show that the strength of time-space association in L2 may depend on individual L2 proficiency.

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