The Access Principle

In an example like (4) an identity connector is set up between the anaphor he and the antecedent James Bond. The elements a1 and a2 in Figure 11.5 are counterparts and are linked by an identity connector. This connector provides access to a counterpart in a different mental space. It is important to point out that the identity connector (which is represented as a line linking a1 and a2 in Figure 11.5) is not overtly introduced into the representation by any linguistic expression. Instead, the identity connector represents a mapping, a conceptual ‘linking’ operation established by the inference.

Fauconnier formalises this structuring property of mental space configurations in terms of the Access Principle, which states that ‘an expression that names or describes an element in one mental space can be used to access a counterpart of that element in another mental space’ (Fauconnier 1997: 41). This means that connectors are a type of conceptual projection: like the conceptual metaphors and conceptual metonymies described in the previous chapter, connectors establish relationships or mappings across regions of conceptual structure.

One consequence of the Access Principle is that expressions referring to a particular counterpart can typically provide access to entities in mental spaces in either direction. In other words, connectors can ‘link upwards’ or ‘link down wards’ between spaces. When this occurs, the connector is said to be open. For example, the element corresponding to the anaphor he in example (4) serves as the trigger to access the element corresponding to the element a (James Bond), the target, in the base. In this example, the connector ‘links upwards’ to a previously established space. Access can also ‘link downwards’ from one mental space to a subsequently established space. Suppose we add example (5) to the text in (4):

This sentence adds structure to the WAR space by prompting for a new frame to be added containing information regarding WARSHIPS and the relationship between naval officers and the ships they serve on. Because the expression James Bond is used, which corresponds to element a in the base space, the counterpart of element a (labelled a1) in the WAR space is accessed. New information can then be added with respect to element a1. In this example, element a in the base space, which is identified by James Bond, is the trigger for element a1, the target, which is in the WAR space. In this way, a1 in the WAR space is accessed via the base space. Another way of thinking about this is to say that the space that is in ‘focus’, the WAR space, which is the space where structure is being added, is accessed from the perspective of the base space. This additional structure and the direction of the connector is represented in Figure 11.6.

Another consequence of the Access Principle is that multiple counterparts can be accessed. This is illustrated in the next example, discussed by Fauconnier (1994), which relates to a fictitious movie about the life of the famous film director Alfred Hitchcock. In his movies, Hitchcock invariably made a cameo appearance as a minor character. In the fictitious movie, Hitchcock is played by Orson Welles:

This sentence contains the space builder in the movie. This sets up a MOVIE space containing the characters Hitchcock and the man at the bus stop. As we have seen, a mental space either represents the base space or is constructed relative to a base space; the base space contains default information currently available to the discourse context, including contextually relevant background frames. The base space for example (6) relates to the film set, which includes the director, the actors and so on. This information is not provided by specific linguistic expressions in example (6), but is supplied by schema induction arising from our knowledge of the MOVIE frame which also sets up connectors between actors and the characters they play.

In the base, which represents the reality space, both the element introduced by Orson Welles and the element introduced by Hitchcock are present. This is default information: both individuals exist as actors in the reality space. In the MOVIE space, based on our knowledge of the MOVIE frame, the information provided by played instructs us to link Orson Welles the actor (in the base) with Hitchcock the character (in the MOVIE space) as counterparts, linked by an actor-character connector. This is represented by connector 1 in Figure 11.7. In addition, while Hitchcock is identified as a character in the MOVIE space (by virtue of the actor-character connector), he is also identified as an actor by the subsequent part of the sentence: who played a man at the bus stop. This relation between Hitchcock-as-character (established in the MOVIE space) and Hitchcock-as-actor (established in the base space) is set up by the expression who, which is an instruction to set up a connector between these two counterparts. This is represented by connector 2 in Figure 11.7.

Now suppose we add example (7) to the information established in (6).

This sentence is ambiguous. It could mean either that (the real) Hitchcock liked the character played by Orson Welles (Hitchcock-as-actor), or that he liked the man at the bus stop (Hitchcock-as-character). That is, from the perspective of the base, b1 (the real) Hitchcock can be linked either to counterpart b2 in the MOVIE space (Hitchcock-as actor, introduced by who) or to counterpart b3 in the MOVIE space (a man at the bus stop). This is illustrated in Figure 11.8, which shows that the ambiguity in the sentence arises from the fact that b1 (the real) Hitchcock has two potential connectors which link it to two counterparts in the MOVIE space. In other words, b1 (Hitchcock)is a trigger with two targets established by pragmatic function: (1) the connector linking b1 with b2 (Hitchcock as-actor, introduced by who), which is established by virtue of an identity connector; and (2) the connector linking b1 (Hitchcock) with b3 (the man at the bus stop), which is established by an actor-character connector. Crucially, the ambiguity is a function of the mapping possibilities across mental spaces.

As this discussion reveals, one appeal of Mental Spaces Theory is that it offers a plausible account of how language prompts for different referential possibilities. It is precisely because we partition discourse into distinct mental spaces, with mappings holding between elements in different mental spaces, that we are able to construct the complex patterns of reference illustrated here.

One of the challenges for truth-conditional theories of sentence meaning is that referential ambiguities cannot be straightforwardly accounted for. This is because truth-conditional models rely upon the idea that each sentence has a truth value that can be assessed relative to a stable and objectively defined ‘state of affairs’, as we discussed earlier. A truth-conditional approach would be forced to claim that each interpretation arising from example (7) has a different set of truth conditions, which is inconsistent with the view that the meaning of a sentence can be modelled in terms of its truth or falsity relative to a given state of affairs. In other words, given a state of affairs in which Hitchcock liked the character Hitchcock-as-actor in the movie, the sentence in (7) would be simul taneously true (on the corresponding interpretation) and false (on the inter pretation that Hitchcock liked the man at the bus stop). This gives rise to a logical inconsistency, because this model holds that a sentence cannot simultaneously be true and false in relation to the same state of affairs. In contrast to this view, because Mental Spaces theory holds that elements are set up in mental spaces rather than in some objectively defined ‘state of affairs’, no inconsistency arises in a single element having two distinct counterparts: it is possible, and even likely, that two or more distinct interpretations of a single sentence may coexist simultaneously.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يصدر كتابًا توثيقيًّا عن جرائم الإرهاب بحق زائري الأربعين في العراق

في مقابلة خاصة مع المشرف على قسم الشؤون الطبية: مركز السيد جعفر الحلي يعزز الاستجابة الطبية الطارئة ولا سيّما في الزيارات المليونية

لمنتسبي العتبة العباسية المقدسة.. قسم الشؤون الدينية يجري الاختبارات العملية للمشاركين في الدورة التطويرية الثانية

المجمع العلمي يقيم الدورة الــ 20 في تعليم أحكام التلاوة لطلبة العلوم الدينية

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

العلاج بالماء البارد.. باحثون يكشفون فوائده الصحية

من دون صالة رياضية.. عادة بسيطة لتحسين الصحة وخسارة الوزن

لصحة القلب وتفادي السرطان.. استهلك هذا النوع من الطعام

دراسة تحذر من خطر شرب القهوة في أكواب البلاستيك

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

إنجاز طبي تاريخي.. جراحة قلب بلا شق في الصدر

اليابان.. مراحيض توفر فحص للحالة الصحية عبر "تحليل البراز" !

اختراق واسع لمنصة "إنستغرام".. ونشر بيانات على "الدارك ويب"

علماء يحذرون: هكذا سيفنى كوكب الأرض

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

An illustration of mental space construction

Roles and values

Counterparts and connectors

Mental space lattices

Properties and relations

Elements

Space builders

The architecture of mental space construction

Towards a cognitive theory of meaning construction

Meaning construction in cognitive semantics

Sentence meaning in formal semantics

Meaning construction and mental spaces