The structure of ICMs
In this section, we explore in more detail the structure of ICMs. So far, we have likened the ICM to Fillmore’s notion of a frame and have shown how ICMs can give rise to typicality effects of various kinds. However, we will show that Lakoff’s ICMs encompass a wider range of conceptual phenomena than frames and that frames are just one kind of ICM. In Lakoff’s theory, ICMs are complex structured systems of knowledge. ICMs structure mental spaces: conceptual ‘packets’ of knowledge constructed during ongoing meaning construction (see Chapter 12). As Lakoff observes, ‘[a] mental space is a medium for conceptualization and thought. Thus any fixed or ongoing state of affairs as we conceptualize it is represented by a mental space’ (Lakoff 1987: 281). Examples include our understanding of our immediate reality, a hypothetical situation or a past event. In particular, language prompts for the construction of mental spaces in ongoing discourse. The role of ICMs is to provide the background knowledge that can be recruited in order to structure mental spaces. We referred to this process as schema mapping in Chapter 5, a process that is also called schema induction. According to Lakoff, ICMs depend upon (at least) five sorts of structuring principles for their composition: (1) image schemas; (2) propositions; (3) metaphor; (4) metonymy; and (5) symbolism. We briefly consider each of these structuring principles in turn.
Image schematic ICMs For Lakoff, a fundamental ‘building-block’of conceptual structure is the image schema (recall Chapter 6). Lakoff argues that, in many respects, image schemas serve as the foundation for conceptual structure. He argues that our experience and concepts of SPACE are structured in large part by image schemas like CON TAINER, SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, PART-WHOLE, UP-DOWN, FRONT-BACK and so on. This means that image schemas like these structure our ICM (or mental model) for SPACE.
Propositional ICMs
Lakoffuses the term ‘propositional’ in the sense that ICMs of this kind are not structured by ‘imaginative devices’ (1987: 285) like metaphor and metonymy. Instead, propositional ICMs consist of elements with properties and relations that hold between those elements. An ICM of this kind consists of propositional (or factual) knowledge. For example, our knowledge of the ‘rules’ involved in requesting a table and ordering food in a restaurant emerges from a propositional ICM. Another sort of propositional ICM might be a taxonomic classification system, for example the biological systems that classify plants and animals.
Metaphoric ICMs
Metaphoric ICMs are structured by the projection or mapping of structure from a source domain to a target domain. For example, when the domain or ICM of LOVE is metaphorically structured in terms of a JOURNEY, as illustrated by expressions like Their relationship has come a long way, the ICM for LOVE is metaphorically structured. We return to this subject in more detail in the next chapter.
Metonymic ICMs
We have already examined metonymic ICMs in some detail. As we saw above, ICMs like stereotypes, paragons and ideals are metonymic in the sense that a single type or individual stands for the entire category. We also examine metonymy in more detail in the next chapter.
Symbolic ICMs
ICMs of this kind represent the knowledge structures that Fillmore described in terms of semantic frames. Semantic frames involve lexical items (and gram matical constructions), which cannot be understood independently of the other lexical items relative to which they are understood. Recall the examples of buy, sell and so on which are understood with respect to the COMMERCIAL EVENT frame that we discussed in the previous chapter. Because this kind of ICM (or semantic frame) is explicitly structured by language (rather than pro viding a purely conceptual structure that underlies language), its structure contains symbolic units; this is why Lakoff describes it as symbolic.
