Constraining Blending Theory
Of course, an important question that arises from Blending Theory concerns how this model of meaning construction is constrained. In particular, how is selective projection constrained so that we end up with the ‘right’ structure being projected to the blend? This is reminiscent of a similar question that arose in relation to Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Chapter 9 (for example, if THEORIES are BUILDINGS,why do they not have French windows?). In order to address this issue, Fauconnier and Turner (2002) propose a number of governing principles, also known as optimality principles (Fauconnier and Turner 1998a). We present these below (see Table 12.6), and briefly comment on just two of them in order to explain how selective projection is constrained.
These principles can be described as ‘optimality’ principles because blending is not a deterministic process. Instead, integration networks are established in order to achieve the goals we described in section 12.4. Thus, depending on the precise structure available in a given integration network and the purpose of integration, there may be competing demands on the selective projection of structure to the blend. For example, consider a scenario in which a child picks up a replica sword in a military museum. In response to the expression of alarm on the face of the parent the curator remarks, ‘Don’t worry, the sword is safe,’ to which the parent rejoins, ‘Not from him it isn’t.’ In this exchange, the curator intended that the sword would not cause the child harm. In this intended interpretation, the structure being projected relates to the potential harm that swords can cause, especially when handled by the inexperienced. However, the parent rejects this blend and proposes a new one in which it is the sword, rather than the child, that is at risk from potential harm. This blend arises because the parent projects his personal knowledge of the child, and the child’s ability to inflict damage on anything they come into contact with. This example illustrates how it is possible to obtain different blends from the same, or very similar, input spaces by virtue of differential selective projection.
We briefly discuss two of the principles in Table 12.6 in order to give a sense of how projections from the inputs spaces to the blend are selected. In essence, these governing principles optimise with respect to each other in order to achieve the goals of blending that we summarised in Table 12.3. For instance, the topology principle ensures that topology (the relational structure between and within the input spaces) is preserved in the blended space. The default means of achieving this preservation of topology is by projecting relational structure as it occurs in the outer-space relation. For example, in the BOAT RACE blend, the distance travelled between San Francisco and Boston for both Northern Light and Great American II is preserved and projected unchanged to the blend. The preservation of this topology highlights the differences between inputs that we seek to understand via blending, such as the different spatial locations at a given temporal point in the BOAT RACE blend.
While the topology principle maintains the existing relational structure of the input spaces, this principle is at odds with the maximisation of vital relations principle. This principle serves, in part, to reduce outer-space vital relations to an undifferentiated single structure in the blend. This is the goal of compression. However, to fulfil the goals of blending, these two principles have to work in tandem, optimising the relative tensions they jointly give rise to in order to facilitate an optimal blend which best achieves the goals of blending. In this way, the governing principles work together to constrain, rather than to govern (in the sense of determining), what is projected to the blend by selective projection.
