The tragic in Greek drama and conceptual blending

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-190
Author(s):  
Georgios Ioannou
Keyword(s):  
Reference Scenario ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Simultaneous Generation ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Common Space ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Emergent Structure

AbstractThis paper examines the tragic sense permeating ancient Greek drama as a product of a special type of conceptual integration between two antithetic mental spaces, which prompts the simultaneous generation of two mutually exclusive emergent structures. The special tragic sense generated carries along the inferences of two equally impossible situations. The key-difference between this type of blend and other counterfactuals is argued to be found in the lack of reference scenario in the blend. In the context of theatrical enactment, the realisation of this special type of antithetic blend is based on the frame-clash between conceived and enacted space, matched by the emotions of pity and fear, respectively. The feeling of catharsis that follows the end of the play is analysed as a second level blend within the emergent structure that leads to the restoration of a single common space of cognitive compatibility between actors and audience.

scholarly journals Conceptual integration theory and British humour: an analysis of the sitcom Miranda

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Jabłońska-Hood
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Mental Space ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Emergent Structure ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory ◽  
Different Levels

Conceptual integration theory (henceforth CIT), aka conceptual blending, was devised by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) as a model for meaning construction and interpretation. It is based on the notion of a mental space, which originated in Fauconnier's early research (1998). Mental spaces are structures that constitute information pertaining to a particular concept (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 40). Interestingly, mental spaces can be linked together and blended so as to produce a novel quality not previously present. In this manner, conceptual integration serves the purpose of a theoretical model which throws light on creativity in language use. In my paper, I will apply CIT to British humour in order to use its multiway blending together with its dynamic, online running of the blended contents for the purpose of comedy elucidation. It is crucial to observe that British humour is a complex phenomenon which pertains to many different levels of interpretation, i.e. a linguistic, cultural or a discourse one. CIT possesses a well suited cognitive apparatus which can encompass the complexity of British humour with all its layers. The primary goal of the article is to analyse a selected scene from a sitcom entitled Miranda in order to show the validity of the theory in respect of humour studies. In particular, I will undertake to demonstrate that CIT, with a special emphasis on its principles such as compression and the emergent structure of the blend can deal with many processes that accumulate within British humour and result in laughter. Simultaneously, I will try to demonstrate that frame-shifting, as proposed by Coulson (2015: pp. 167-190), can be of help to CIT in humour explanation.

Blending and characters’ mental functioning in Virginia Woolf's ‘Lappin and Lapinova’

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Semino
Keyword(s):  
Mental Functioning ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Central Aspect ◽  
Married Life ◽  
Fantasy World ◽  
Female Protagonist ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Emergent Structure ◽  
The Relationship

In this article I apply Fauconnier and Turner's (2002) theory of conceptual integration, or blending, to the analysis of a central aspect of the main characters’ mental lives in Virginia Woolf's story ‘Lappin and Lapinova’. The female protagonist of the story, Rosalind, has difficulties adjusting to her role as the new wife of Ernest Thorburn, and therefore constructs an alternative fantasy world where Ernest is a rabbit king called Lappin. At the beginning of their married life, Rosalind and Ernest develop this fantasy world together, and add to it a counterpart for Rosalind herself – a hare called Queen Lapinova. With the passing of time, Ernest loses interest in the fantasy, but Rosalind becomes increasingly dependent on it, so that Ernest's announcement of Lapinova's death at the end of the story also results in the ‘end’ of their marriage. In my analysis, I show how the ‘rabbit’ fantasy world can be described in terms of what Fauconnier and Turner (2002) call a conceptual integration network: a dynamic construct resulting from the interaction of different mental spaces and involving the creation of a blended space with ‘emergent structure’ of its own. In order to account for the different roles that the blended space plays for Rosalind as opposed to Ernest, I adopt Palmer's (2004) distinction between ‘intramental’ and ‘intermental’ functioning. I therefore describe the fantasy world as a multiple blend that begins as an intramental construct, develops into an intermental construct, and ends as a largely intramental construct once again, with serious implications for Rosalind's sanity and the relationship between the two main characters in the story.

scholarly journals Compounds and culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-274
Author(s):  
Tore Nesset ◽  
Svetlana Sokolova
Keyword(s):  
Formation Mechanism ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Slavic Language ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Language System ◽  
Emergent Structure

Abstract This study explores compounds from the perspective of conceptual blending (conceptual integration), and argues that the meaning of compounds arises through the interaction of three levels: (i) input spaces established for the head and non-head components, (ii) a blended space involving compression and emergent structure, i.e. elements not imported from the input spaces, and (iii) the language system as a whole and the culture this system is part of. With regard to (iii) we propose the “Culture-to-Compound Hypothesis”, according to which compounding can be recruited to represent culturally “novel” content in languages where compounding enjoys a peripheral status in the language system. The examples discussed in the article come from Norwegian (a Germanic language where compounding is a central word-formation mechanism) and Russian (a Slavic language where compounding is more marginal in the language system).

scholarly journals “I know not […] what I myself am”: Conceptual Integration in Susan Heyboer O’Keefe’s ”Frankenstein’s Monster” (2010)

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej Sławomir Kowalczyk
Keyword(s):  
Active Participation ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Great Chain Of Being ◽  
Mental Spaces

<p>The article proposes a cognitive-poetic reading of Susan Heyboer O’Keefe’s novel <em>Frankenstein’s Monster </em>(2010) – a modern rendition of the myth of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature – with regard to the theory of conceptual integration proposed by G. Fauconnier and M. Turner (2002). It is argued that the reader’s conceptualization of the eponymous Monster emerges in the proces of conceptual blending, where several input mental spaces, constructed around elements of the philosophical concept of the Great Chain of Being, are merged to produce a novel entity. Thus, the reader’s active participation in meaning construction allows her/him to redefine her/his perception of monstrosity.</p>

scholarly journals Language and Culture: Within the Four Dimensions

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
V. I. Zabotkina
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Mental Spaces ◽  
Linguistic Structures

The article concentrates on the interaction between the four dimensions of language space (Yu. S. Stepanov) and four mental spaces involved in the contact of two cultures. We argue that all four dimensions of language (semantic, pragmatic, syntactic and cognitive) are activated in the interaction between cultures. The main emphasis is on the cognitive/conceptual line studied through the lens of conceptual blending. We distinguish three levels of conceptual integration. We hold that at every level the mechanism of interactive alignment is at work. It ensures that interlocutors operate on common representations underlying semantic, syntactic and pragmatic linguistic structures of the two cultures in contact.

Thinking Through Monuments: Levantine Monuments as Technologies of Community-Scale Motivated Social Cognition

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Timothy Hogue
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Conceptual Blending ◽  
Scientific Model ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Iron Age Levant ◽  
Relational Qualities ◽  
Motivated Social Cognition

This study proposes that monuments are technologies through which communities think. I draw on conceptual blending theory as articulated by Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier to argue that monuments are material anchors for conceptual integration networks. The network model highlights that monuments are embedded in specific spatial and socio-historical contexts while also emphasizing that they function relationally by engaging the imaginations of communities. An enactivist understanding of these networks helps to explain the generative power of monuments as well as how they can become dynamic and polysemic. By proposing a cognitive scientific model for such relational qualities, this approach also has the advantage of making them more easily quantifiable. I present a test case of monumental installations from the Iron Age Levant (the ceremonial plaza of Karkamiš) to develop this approach and demonstrate its explanatory power. I contend that the theory and methods introduced here can make future accounts of monuments more precise while also opening up new avenues of research into monuments as a technology of motivated social cognition that is enacted on a community-scale.

On the construction of the concept ‘language’: Entrenched Conceptual Integration Networks Encountered in Evolutionary Biology and Studies of Language Evolution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roslyn M Frank
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Emergent Structure ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory

<p>In recent years the relationship between language change and biological evolution has captured the attention of investigators operating in different disciplines, particularly evolutionary biology, AI and A-Life (Zeimke 2001, Hull 2001), as well as linguistics (Croft 2000; Sinha 1999), with each group often bringing radically different conceptualizations of the object under study, namely, “language” itself, to the debate.&nbsp;Over the centuries, meanings associated with the expression “language” have been influenced by mappings of conceptual frames and inputs from the biological sciences onto the entity referred to as “language”. At the same time the prestige of the “science of linguistics” created a feedback mechanism by which the referentiality of “language”, at each stage, was mapped back into the field of evolutionary biology along with the emergent structure(s) of the resulting “blend”. While significant energy has been spent on identifying ways in which biological evolution has been linked to concepts of language evolution (Dörries 2002), little attention has been directed to the nature of the conceptual integration networks that have been produced in the process. This paper examines the way conceptual integration theory can be brought to bear on the “blends” that have been created, focusing primarily on examples drawn from 19th century debates concerning the “language-species-organism analogy” in the emerging field of comparative-historical philology.</p><p>In recent years the relationship between language change and biological evolution has captured the attention of investigators operating in different disciplines, particularly evolutionary biology, AI and A-Life (Zeimke 2001, Hull 2001), as well as linguistics (Croft 2000; Sinha 1999), with each group often bringing radically different conceptualizations of the object under study, namely, “language” itself, to the debate. Over the centuries, meanings associated with the expression “language” have been influenced by mappings of conceptual frames and inputs from the biological sciences onto the entity referred to as “language”. At the same time the prestige of the “science of linguistics” created a feedback mechanism by which the referentiality of “language”, at each stage, was mapped back into the field of evolutionary biology along with the emergent structure(s) of the resulting “blend”. While significant energy has been spent on identifying ways in which biological evolution has been linked to concepts of language evolution (Dörries 2002), little attention has been directed to the nature of the conceptual integration networks that have been produced in the process. This paper examines the way conceptual integration theory can be brought to bear on the “blends” that have been created, focusing primarily on examples drawn from 19th century debates concerning the “language-species-organism analogy” in the emerging field of comparative-historical philology. The document includes Supplemental Materials: Resource Guide and Commentaries.</p>

Conclusions

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-250
Author(s):  
Lucy C. M. M. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Drama ◽  
Relevant Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Questions ◽  
The Way

As well as bringing together all the relevant evidence for the quality and activity of the chorus of drama in the fourth century, this monograph has raised certain key questions about the current understanding of the nature and development of Attic drama as a whole. First, it shows that the supposed ‘civic’ quality of the chorus of drama is, in fact, an association loaned, inappropriately, from the genre of circular, ‘dithyrambic’, choral performance. Being attentive to the cultural differences between these two genres should prompt a further re-evaluation of how to read dramatic choruses more generally. Second, the way in which key fourth-century authors such as Plato and Xenophon use the image of the chorus to discuss the concept of leadership has profoundly shaped ways of construing choreia in ancient Greek drama, and the ancient Mediterranean more generally. Armed with this knowledge, it is possible to retell the story and history of the chorus in drama.

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