On the cognitive status of mental spaces and of some types of metonymy within Conceptual Integration Theory

Abstract: In the light of the automatic nature of the process of conceptual integration we examine the cognitive-conceptual status of the four types of mental spaces and their elements: the input spaces, the generic space and the blend. On the basis of the differences obtaining between the four types of mental spaces we divide them into defocused, highlighted and focal mental spaces. We further discuss the place and manner of intepretation of two basic types of metonymy in the context of blending theory and propose the introduction of a fifth mental space where such metonymies would be interpreted, namely the pre-input spaces in the case of nonmetaphoric counterfactuals, or the pre-target space when metonymy operates within a metaphoric utterance.