Conceptual Blending and the Arts


Book Description

This book presents an analysis of how the processes described in Conceptual Blending Theory can be applied in practice, on the basis of Michał Batory’s posters designed for artistic events. Therefore, it begins with an introduction of the origins of Conceptual Blending Theory, the very nature and elements of conceptual blending as a linguistic and mental phenomenon. It also provides an overview of the models and types of integration networks, which is followed by an analysis of vital relations that accompany the blending process. Importantly, the principles constraining Conceptual Blending Theory, together with the criticism levelled at Fauconnier and Turner’s approach are put forward. The book then moves on to analyse Michał Batory’s posters in terms of conceptual blending processes. The blended space is meticulously discussed and illustrated to show explicitly how two distinct notions are combined to create a new meaning that is non-computable from the two input spaces. The interaction that occurs between the inscriptions and images is very distinct in every single poster. The analysis highlights how Batory’s artefacts influence people and convey the hidden message, with the use of strong visual and verbal elements that accompany the blending process.




The Psychology of Contemporary Art


Book Description

This book examines how contemporary artworks can affect our psychology, producing immersive experiences.




The Way We Think


Book Description

In its first two decades, much of cognitive science focused on such mental functions as memory, learning, symbolic thought, and language acquisition -- the functions in which the human mind most closely resembles a computer. But humans are more than computers, and the cutting-edge research in cognitive science is increasingly focused on the more mysterious, creative aspects of the mind. The Way We Think is a landmark synthesis that exemplifies this new direction. The theory of conceptual blending is already widely known in laboratories throughout the world; this book is its definitive statement. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner argue that all learning and all thinking consist of blends of metaphors based on simple bodily experiences. These blends are then themselves blended together into an increasingly rich structure that makes up our mental functioning in modern society. A child's entire development consists of learning and navigating these blends. The Way We Think shows how this blending operates; how it is affected by (and gives rise to) language, identity, and concept of category; and the rules by which we use blends to understand ideas that are new to us. The result is a bold, exciting, and accessible new view of how the mind works.




Shakespeare and Conceptual Blending


Book Description

This book shows how Shakespeare’s excellence as storyteller, wit and poet reflects the creative process of conceptual blending. Cognitive theory provides a wealth of new ideas that illuminate Shakespeare, even as he illuminates them, and the theory of blending, or conceptual integration, strikingly corroborates and amplifies both classic and current insights of literary criticism. This study explores how Shakespeare crafted his plots by fusing diverse story elements and compressing incidents to strengthen dramatic illusion; considers Shakespeare’s wit as involving sudden incongruities and a reckoning among differing points of view; interrogates how blending generates the “strange meaning” that distinguishes poetic expression; and situates the project in relation to other cognitive literary criticism. This book is of particular significance to scholars and students of Shakespeare and cognitive theory, as well as readers curious about how the mind works.




The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics


Book Description

The best survey of cognitive linguistics available, this Handbook provides a thorough explanation of its rich methodology, key results, and interdisciplinary context. With in-depth coverage of the research questions, basic concepts, and various theoretical approaches, the Handbook addresses newly emerging subfields and shows their contribution to the discipline. The Handbook introduces fields of study that have become central to cognitive linguistics, such as conceptual mappings and construction grammar. It explains all the main areas of linguistic analysis traditionally expected in a full linguistics framework, and includes fields of study such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics, diachronic studies, and corpus linguistics. Setting linguistic facts within the context of many other disciplines, the Handbook will be welcomed by researchers and students in a broad range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, gesture studies, computational linguistics, and multimodal studies.




Creativity and Artificial Intelligence


Book Description

Creativity and Artificial Intelligence: A Conceptual Blending Approach takes readers into a computationally plausible model of creativity. Inspired by a thorough analysis of work on creativity from the areas of philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, cognitive linguistics and artificial intelligence, the author deals with the various processes, principles and representations that lie underneath the act of creativity. Focusing on Arthur Koestler's Bisociations, which eventually lead to Turner and Fauconnier's conceptual blending framework, the book proposes a theoretical model that considers blends and their emergent structure as a fundamental cognitive mechanism. The author thus discusses the computational implementation of several aspects of conceptual blending theory, namely composition, completion, elaboration, frames and optimality constraints. Informal descriptions and examples are supplied to provide non-computer scientists as well as non-cognitive linguists with clear insights into these ideas. Several experiments are made, and their results are discussed, with particular emphasis on the validation of the creativity and conceptual blending aspects. Written by a researcher with a background in artificial intelligence, the book is the result of several years of exploration and discussion from different theoretical perspectives. As a result, the book echoes some of the criticism made on conceptual blending and creativity in artificial intelligence, and thus proposes improvements in both areas, with the aim of being a constructive contribution to these very intriguing, yet appealing, research orientations.




Windows to the Mind


Book Description

Focusing on a wide range of linguistic structures, the articles in this volume explore the explanatory potential of two of the most influential cognitive-linguistic theories, conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory and conceptual blending theory. Whether enthusiastic or critical in their stance, the contributors seek to enhance our understanding of how conventional as well as creative ways of thinking influence our language and vice versa.




Creative Thinkering


Book Description

Why isn’t everyone creative? Why doesn’t education foster more ingenuity? Why is expertise often the enemy of innovation? Bestselling creativity expert Michael Michalko shows that in every ?eld of endeavor — from business and science to government, the arts, and even day-to-day life — natural creativity is limited by the prejudices of logic and the structures of accepted categories and concepts. Through step-by-step exercises, illustrated strategies, and inspiring real-world examples, he shows readers how to liberate their thinking and literally expand their imaginations by learning to synthesize dissimilar subjects, think paradoxically, and enlist the help of the subconscious mind. He also reveals the attitudes and approaches that diverse geniuses share — and anyone can emulate. Fascinating and fun, Michalko’s strategies facilitate the kind of lightbulb-moment thinking that changes lives — for the better.




Blending and the Study of Narrative


Book Description

The theory of Blending, or Conceptual Integration, proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Marc Turner, is one of most promising cognitive theories of meaning production. It has been successfully applied to the analysis of poetic discourse and micro-textual elements, such as metaphor. Prose narrative has so far received significantly less attention. The present volume aims to remedy this situation. Following an introductory discussion of the connections between narrative and the processes of blending, the contributions demonstrate the range of applications of the theory to the study of narrative. They cover issues such as time and space, literary character and perspective, genre, story levels, and fictional minds; some chapters show how such phenomena as metalepsis, counterfactual narration, intermediality, extended metaphors, and suspense can be fruitfully studied from the vantage point of Conceptual Integration. Working within a theoretical framework situated at the intersection of narratology and the cognitive sciences, the book provides both fresh readings for individual literary and film narratives and new impulses for post-classical narratology.




A Conceptual Blending Theory of Humour


Book Description

The book analyses a selection of British comedy productions (e.g. The Office, Extras, Carry On, etc.) by means of conceptual integration theory, aka blending, as proposed by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner. It shows that blending can successfully explain the origin of humour and thus it can be labelled as a potential linguistic theory of humour.