Metaphors set in motion in the context of L2 academic spoken discourse

Abstract

Theoretical and applied research in physical motion events (MEs) (Talmy, 2000; Ibarretxe-Antuñano, 2017) has shown that (1) speakers tend to organize MEs around a specific semantic component resulting in at least two different lexicalization patterns (satellite-framed and verb-framed languages), with different narrative styles (Slobin, 1996, 2004); (2) the use of specific patterns may also depend on genre and discourse (Caballero, 2017); and (3) the adoption of the narrative style of an L2 is challenging (Cadierno, 2008). These findings seem to also apply to metaphorical motion events (MMEs) (Özçalişkan, 2005; Ibarretxe-Antuñano & Caballero, 2014). This study analyses the linguistic realizations and discourse functions of MMEs in the specific context of oral EMI seminars to examine ME prevalence and the impact inter-typological differences may have on the production of MMEs. Data from three seminars from METCLIL corpus were selected to compare MME verb production by English L1 speakers (n=4) and L2 English speakers (satellite-framed: n=4; verb-framed: n=9). Results show that (i) individual variables (speakers' L1 typology or lecturer's input) do not seem to have a determining impact on MME employment, while (ii) contextual factors (to-be-performed activities) have been shown to have a more salient role in MME usage and performance of discursive functions.