Further linguistic examples of blending

In this section, we consider some further examples of blending presented by Fauconnier and Turner, and look at how the processes described in the previous section might apply.

Boat race

 Consider the example (3) from a news report in Latitude 38,a sailing magazine (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 64).

This example relates to a 1993 news story in which a modern catamaran Great American II, sailed by Wilson and Biewenga, set out on a route from San Francisco to Boston. A record for this route had been set in 1853 by the clipper Northern Light, which had made the journey in 76 days and 8 hours. This record still held in 1993.

The utterance in (3) sets up an integration network in which there are two input spaces: one relating to the journey of the modern catamaran in 1993 and the other relating to the original journey undertaken by Northern Light in 1853. The generic space contains schematic information relating to BOATS and JOUR NEYS, which motivates matching operations and thus cross-space connections between the two inputs. In the blend, we have two boats: CATAMARAN and NORTHERNLIGHT. Moreover, in the blend the two boats are engaged in a RACE, in which the CATAMARAN is barely maintaining a lead over NORTHERN LIGHT. As Fauconnier and Turner observe, no one is actually ‘fooled’ by the blend: we do not interpret the sentence to mean that there are actually two boats from two different periods in history engaged in a real side-by-side race. Despite this, we achieve valuable inferences as a result of setting up the conceptual blend. Indeed, it is only by virtue of blending that we can compare the progress of the catamaran against that of its ‘rival’ Northern Light, which set the original record over a century earlier. This blend is illustrated in Figure 12.6.

In achieving this blend, the first process to occur is selective projection from the inputs to the blend. Not all the information in the input spaces is projected. For example, information is not projected relating to weather conditions, whether the boats have cargo or not, the nature of the clipper’s crew, what the crew ate for supper and so on. Instead, information is projected that is sufficient to accomplish the inference. For example, we only project the 1993-time frame. Secondly, the structure that is selectively projected into the blend is composed and completed. The schema induction that occurs at the completion stage adds the RACE frame to the blend and thus provides further structure: in a race there are two or more COMPETITORS and the first to complete the course is the WINNER. Next, upon running the blend, the additional structure emerges that has arisen as a result of composition and completion. In Figure 12.6, this emergent structure is appended to the blend in the box beneath the blended space. Once this has occurred, we can think of the two boats as competitors in a race and compare their relative progress. Finally, as a result of backward projection the blend modifies the input spaces. For example, by ‘living in the blend’, the crew of the catamaran, their support team and others who are monitoring their progress can experience a range of emotions attendant upon participating in or watching a race, even though the ‘race’ is an imaginative feat.

XYZ constructions

In this section, we look at an example that shows how the conceptual blending approach can be applied to closed-class constructions. The XYZ construction is a grammatical construction specialised for prompting for conceptual integration. Consider the examples in (4) (Turner 1991: 199).

As Turner notes, these examples all share a form first noted by Aristotle in the Poetics. The form consists of three elements, which Turner labels X, Y and Z. These are all noun phrases, as illustrated in (5). Two of the elements, Y and Z, form a possessive construction (bracketed) connected by the preposition ‘of’. The purpose of the construction is to propose a particular perspective according to which X should be viewed.

In (5), for example, we are asked to view children as the riches of poor men, which results in a number of positive inferences relating to the ‘value’ of children. In addition to the elements X, Y and Z, the construction prompts for a fourth element, which Turner (1991) labels W. In order to understand children (X) in terms of riches (Y) we are prompted to construct a conceptual relation between children (X) and poor men (Z) and a parallel relation holding between riches (Y), and those who possess riches, namely rich men. This is the missing element (W), which is a necessary component to the interpretation of this construction: in the absence of a Y-W (RICHES-RICH MEN) relationship parallel to the X-Z (CHILDREN-POOR MEN) relationship, there is no basis for viewing children (X) and riches (Y) as counterparts. This idea is illustrated in (6).

Turner (1991) originally analysed XYZ constructions as metaphors. However, the development of Blending Theory offered a more revealing analysis. In the integration network for children are the riches of poor men, the two domains from Turner’s original metaphor analysis are recast as input spaces. One input space contains the elements RICH MEN (W) and RICHES (Y), and the other input space contains the elements POOR MEN (Z) and CHILDREN (X). The generic space contains the schematic information MEN and POSSESSIONS. This generic structure maps onto appropriate elements in both inputs and sets up cross-space connectors between counterparts in the input spaces, establishing cross-space commonalities and motivating integration within the blended space. In the blend, not only are certain elements from the inputs projected and integrated (the elements, Y and Z), but their integration results in emergent structure that does not exist in either of the inputs: CHILDREN ARE THE RICHES OF POOR MEN. In neither of the inputs does there exist a conjunction between children of poor men and riches of rich men. This integration network is represented in Figure 12.7.

Formal blends

The XYZblend is a formal blend. Formal blends involve projection of specific lexical forms to the blended space and rely, partly, upon formal (lexical or grammatical) structure for their meaning. In other words, part of the meaning of a given XYZ blend arises from the meaning conventionally associated with the XYZ construction. We will look in more detail at the meaning associated with grammatical constructions in Part III of the book.

A further example of formal blending is compounding, the process of blending two (or more) free morphemes to give rise to a new word. Recall from Chapter 4 that new words come into language on a remarkably regular basis. By providing an account of compounding, Blending Theory also offers an insight into this aspect of language change. The formal blend we consider here is the expression landyacht. According to Turner and Fauconnier (1995) this novel noun-noun compound relates to a large and expensive luxury car. It consists of two input spaces relating to the forms land and yacht, and the conventional range of meanings associated with these lexical items. However, projection to the blend is selective. Only a subset of the meanings associated with land and yacht are projected into the blend, together with the forms (the expressions land and yacht) themselves. In other words, Fauconnier and Turner suggest that linguistic forms as well as their associated lexical concepts can be projected into the blended space. When a lexical item is projected into the blend, this is known as word projection. As a result of composition, the forms as well as their projected meanings are integrated, giving rise to a new form landyacht with a distinct meaning: ‘a large expensive luxury car’. Figure 12.8 illustrates the derivation of this compound, a process that could equally explain the PET FISH example that we discussed in Chapter 8 (Fodor and Lepore 1996).

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

دار علوم نهج البلاغة تواصل مشروع تحفيظ نهج البلاغة في ثلاث محافظات

ضمن دورتها العلمية في رحاب العقيدة.. الهيأة العليا لإحياء التراث تعقد محاضرة عن وحدة النص القرآني وثباته

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق دورة تطويرية لطلبة العلوم الدينية الأفارقة في النجف الأشرف

شعبة الخطابة الحسينية النسوية تقيم حفلاً بمناسبة ذكرى ولادات الأقمار المحمدية

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

دراسة: محاولة متعمدة لنشر الإنفلونزا تنتهي بـ"مفاجأة"

من خبير في هارفارد.. 6 نصائح يومية "فعالة" لإبطاء الشيخوخة

7 مشروبات طبيعية لتقوية الذاكرة وزيادة التركيز

عرض شائع على الأصابع.. قد يكشف سرطان الرئة مبكرا

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

وسائل التواصل بين الإفراط والامتناع.. ما هو الحد الآمن للمراهقين؟

أعمق خندق في الكوكب الارض !

روساتوم: روسيا تقترب من تطوير ساعات ذرية فائقة الدقة

مفاجأة علمية عن الإنجاب.. كم طفلا يطيل عمر المرأة؟

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Disintegration and decompression

A taxonomy of vital relations and their compressions

Vital relations

Vital relations and compressions

The nature of blending

Towards a theory of conceptual integration

The origins of Blending Theory

Conceptual blending

Meaning construction and mental spaces Summery

Epistemic distance

The tense-aspect system in Mental Spaces Theory

Tense and aspect in English