Native speakers of English sometimes say that something is in their minds, and at other times, that something is on their minds. But when and why do they use these two phrases? How can the usage patterns of prepositions such as in and on be explained, and how can they be taught and learned in an interesting way?
In this article, I argue that body-world knowledge is a highly useful resource for teaching and learning the usage patterns of preposi-tions in a second language (L2). It provides L2 learners of English with information that they may use both for figuring the patterns out, and for later visualizing the patterns that they have found. By considering the ways in which abstract instances of in and on might have been motivated by speakers’ embodied experiences of the world around them, L2 learners of English are able to understand when and why phrases such as in their minds and on their minds are typically used.