Mental Spaces

Abstract

This chapter explores the emergence of mental spaces in which nature imagery may be rooted in, based on Fauconnier’s mental space theory (1985, 2007). The empiric analyses of folksongs provide evidence that the development of spaces, in which the representation of nature has an underlying role, follow specific cultural construal schemas. They are characterized by a movement from perceptuality to fictivity, and from external representation to internal expression, which is viewed here as a fulfillment of the cultural schema reservedness. Accordingly, the topics discussed are the reconstruction of mental spaces and the investigation of linguistic phenomena that support the schema. They include the consideration of Space Builders and Space Connectors, the identification problem of mental spaces, the transparency of transition from one space to another and also blended spaces. An important observation is that the entities of nature have a primary role in setting up various kinds of mental spaces while locating them in the physical space of the discourse. It is also highlighted that in the ambiguity and the specific evolvement of mental spaces in the folksongs, key notions are spatial grounding and the multiple temporal reference of Hungarian present tense verbs. Mental spaces are tied up with a range of construal operations, including epistemic grounding, perspectivity, and attention.