Mappings
Another prominent theme in cognitive semantics is the idea of conceptual mappings. Fauconnier (1997) has identified three kinds of mapping operations: (1) projection mappings; (2) pragmatic function mappings; and (3) schema mappings.
A projection mapping projects structure from one domain (source) onto another (target). We mentioned this kind of mapping earlier in relation to conceptual metaphor. Another example is the metaphor TIME IS THE MOTION OF OBJECTS, where TIME is conceptualised in terms of MOTION (recall the discussion of the ‘moving time’ model in Chapter 3). Consider the examples in (14).
In these sentences, temporally framed concepts corresponding to the expressions summer, the end of term and the time for a decision are structured in terms of MOTION. Of course, temporal concepts cannot undergo literal motion because they are not physical entities. However, these conventional metaphoric mappings allow us to understand abstract concepts like TIME in terms of MOTION. We explore conceptual metaphor in detail in Chapter 9.
Pragmatic function mappings are established between two entities by virtue of a shared frame of experience. For example, metonymy, which depends upon an association between two entities so that one entity can stand for the other, is an instance of a pragmatic function mapping. Consider example (15).
(15) The sandwich has wandering hands.
Imagine the sentence in (15) uttered by one waitress to another in a restaurant. In this context, the salient association between a particular customer and the food he orders establishes a pragmatic function mapping. We also look in detail at metonymy in Chapter 9.
Schema mappings relate to the projection of a schema (another term for frame) onto particular utterances. As intimated in section 5.2.1, a frame is a relatively detailed knowledge structure derived from everyday patterns of interaction. For instance, we have an abstract frame for PURCHASING GOODS, which represents an abstraction over specific instances of purchasing goods, such as buying a stamp in a post office, buying groceries in a supermarket, ordering a book through an on-line retailer, and so on. Each instance of PUR CHASING GOODS involves a purchaser, a vendor, merchandise, money (or credit card) and so on. Consider example (16):
We make sense of this sentence by mapping its various components onto the roles in the PURCHASING GOODS frame. This frame enables us to understand the role assumed by each of the participants in this example: that the Ministry of Defence is the PURCHASER, the contractor Westland is the VENDOR and the helicopters are the MERCHANDISE. We look in more detail at schema mappings in Chapters 11 and 12, where we address two theories that rely upon this idea: Mental Spaces Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory.
