Mental space

This article is about the philosophical theory, for the potential anatomic space, see Mental space (anatomy).

The mental space is a theoretical construct proposed by Gilles Fauconnier[1] corresponding to possible worlds in truth-conditional semantics. The main difference between a mental space and a possible world is that a mental space does not contain a faithful representation of reality, but an idealized cognitive model.[2] Building of mental spaces and establishment of mappings between those mental spaces are the two main processes involved in construction of meaning.[3] It is one of the basic components in Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner's blending theory, a theory within cognitive semantics.

  1. ^ Evans, Vyvyan; Green, Melanie (2014). "Meaning constructions and mental spaces". Cognitive Linguistics An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0 7486 1832 5.
  2. ^ Fauconnier, Gilles (1994). Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 240.
  3. ^ Evans, Vyvyan; Melanie Green (2006). Cognitive Linguistics An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press. p. 394.