Meaning construction and mental spaces Summery

This chapter introduced Mental Spaces Theory, the cognitive semantics approach to meaning construction. This theory is associated most prominently with the influential work of Gilles Fauconnier. According to this view, meaning construction is a process that is fundamentally conceptual in nature. Sentences constitute partial instructions for the construction of highly complex and intricate conceptual lattices which are temporary, can be more or less detailed and are assembled as a result of ongoing discourse. These temporary domains, called mental spaces, are linked in various ways and contain elements that are also connected, allowing speakers to keep track of chains of reference. From this perspective, meaning is not a property of individual sentences nor of their interpretation relative to some objectively defined ‘state of affairs’ as in formal semantics. Instead, meaning arises from a dynamic process of meaning construction which we call conceptualisation. While our conceptualisations may or may not be about the ‘real world’, we keep track during ongoing discourse of elements, properties and relations in the complex mental space configurations assembled as we think and speak. From this perspective, sentences cannot be analysed in isolation from ongoing discourse, and semantic meaning, while qualitatively distinct, cannot be meaningfully separated from pragmatic meaning. From this perspective, meaning construction is a dynamic process, and is inseparable from context. Finally, because meaning construction is fundamentally conceptual in nature, we must also take account of the general cognitive processes and principles that contribute to this process. In particular, meaning construction relies on mechanisms of conceptual projection such as metaphors and metonymies and connectors. In this chapter, we saw how Mental Spaces Theory accounts for a diverse range of linguistic phenomena relating to meaning at the level of sentence and text, including referential ambiguities and the role of tense and aspect in discourse management and in epistemic distance.

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مواضيع ذات صلة

Epistemic distance

The tense-aspect system in Mental Spaces Theory

Tense and aspect in English

The dynamic nature of meaning construction

An illustration of mental space construction

Roles and values

The Access Principle

Counterparts and connectors

Mental space lattices

Properties and relations

Elements

Space builders