CONTAINMENT and CONTACT image schemas in Spanish-English bilingual children’s speech: A case study

English necessitates a linguistic distinction when coding for spatial relations that Spanish does not necessarily make: that of differentiating between CONTACT and CONTAINMENT. Image schemas of CONTACT and CONTAINMENT are evoked when using language to distinguish between these two spatial relations. The speech of Spanish-English simultaneous bilingual children, aged four and seven, was studied to find out to what degree they are linguistically able to evoke these two different image schemas and thus make this distinction when speaking in English. 32 situations of CONTACT and CONTAINMENT were focused on and the children were prompted to describe them using in, out, on and off. The four-year-old showed a much lower command at coding for CONTACT linguistically in English than the seven-year-old. The seven-year-old was able to produce all the kinds of spatial relations at a much higher rate of accuracy though his use of out, for lack of CONTAINMENT, presented his greatest challenge.