Conceptual blending (also called conceptual integration) is a cognitive operation in which mental spaces representing distinct domains of experience are selectively mapped onto one another, yielding a emergent structure that contains meaning not present in either input alone. The mechanism operates across four standard networks: two input spaces, a generic space capturing shared structure, and a blended space where cross-space mapping produces novel inference, compression, and imagination. Blends are constrained by selective projection (not all elements transfer), partial match (inputs need only partial structural overlap), and emergent structure (the blend gains meaning through its own internal logic). The persistence mechanism is teaching: blends are learned through examples, consolidated as schema, and transmitted by demonstration and practice within cognitive science, literature, and the arts. [formal: complexum integrativum | substrate: mind | horizon: a life | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
conceptual-blending
Conceptual blending (also called conceptual integration) is a cognitive operation in which mental spaces representing distinct domains of experience are selectively mapped onto one another, yielding a emergent structure that contains meani…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A cognitive framework constructed by humans (Fauconnier & Turner) to explain how people combine elements from different mental spaces into new integrated meanings — a map of meaning-making, not the meanings themselves.
Names and aliases
- conceptual-blendingen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrf51qwi005rcqqtmpyziy84DEPENDS_ON →
Conceptual blending is a cognitive operation that creates new meaning by integrating mental spaces. It constitutively requires working memory (to hold and manipulate multiple spaces simultaneously) and long-term memory access (to retrieve schemas and knowledge). Remove memory — and conceptual blending cannot operate. This is present-tense necessity (Law 8), not historical association.
- cmrcnav2700i713vze6dtwed8INSTANCE_OF →
Conceptual blending (Fauconnier and Turner theory) is a specific kind of theory about how humans construct meaning by blending mental spaces. A competent speaker would say conceptual blending is a theory. Nearest kind is theory.
Relations to this entry
- cmrmabncj005jdveaz4ew5sgv← INSTANCE_OF
metaphor is a specific blending pattern where a source domain maps onto a target domain. Per Law 9: metaphor is a specific case of the general concept of conceptual blending. The note pins the sense of conceptual-blending as the cognitive operation of combining elements from distinct mental spaces.
Record identity
- Created
- Jul 17, 2026, 10:00 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 4dbeb047f2055adfe4979ae3cf558a2444f84af3f23bcb911603129ab21bd497