In Part II, we will see the importance of conceptual blending for the integration of knowledge structures and the development of new concepts. Conceptual Conceptual blending is a set of noncompositional processes in which the imaginative of meaning construction are invoked to produce emergent structure (Fauconnier &Turner, 1998). Although blending is frequently employed for sophisticated feats of reasoning, its intermediate products are cognitive models whose plausibility spans the gamut from chimerical, to merely bizarre, to downright trite. Analyses in Chapters 5 through 7 show how cognitive models built in blended spaces can yield productive inferences in spite of, and, sometimes even because of, their strange properties.

TRASHCAN BASKETBALL

Imagine a scenario in which two college students are up late studying for an exam. Suddenly one crumples up a piece of paper and heaves it at the wastepaper basket. As the two begin to shoot the “ball” at the “basket,” the game of trashcan basketball is born. Because it involves the integration of knowledge structures from different domains, trashcan basketball can be seen as the product of conceptual blending. In conceptual blending, frames from established domains (known as inputs) are combined to yield a hybrid frame (a blend or blended model) comprised of structure from each the inputs, as well as unique structure of its own. For example, trashcan basketball, the input domains are trash disposal and (conventional) basketball, and the resultant blend incorporates a bit of both domains. Moreover, emergent structure – that is, properties of trashcan basketball that differ from properties of the input domains – need not be explicitly computed, but arise from affordances in the environment.