Scientific context

Currently, the main paradigm for the study of conceptual mappings is the metaphor or direct transfer model , mainly represented by Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), originated by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Conceptual metaphors, which give rise to many particular metaphorical expressions, are fixed sets of partial correspondences between two conceptual domains. Through metaphor, information is transferred from a specific and better structured source domain (e.g. movement from A to B) to a target domain that is more abstract and difficult to structure, such as emotions, weather, political ideas, etc.

This model of the direct transfer of sensory experience is akin toembodied cognition, a prominent paradigm in cognitive science that emphasises how the conceptual system depends on the structure of the body and perception. CMT and embodied cognition have promoted the study of a wide variety of mappings that cut across cultures and linguistic usage. The conceptualisation of emotions has received much attention (in the work of George Lakoff and Zoltan Kövecses in particular). Among other classic metaphors for emotion concepts are 'love is a journey', 'anger is heat', 'emotion is strength', etc. However, these programs of study are mainly based on decontextualised idiomatic linguistic expressions. No explanations are offered for the emergence of novel meanings or for pragmatic and aesthetic effects and leave little room for the studyof creativity, culture or context. The diachronic perspectiveis also rather rare in this approach.

EMOCCC culminates a project that explores an alternative proposal , that of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner's Conceptual Integration Theory or Blending Theory (BT). The model ofblending proposes that there is an opportunistic activation, association and integration of mental spaces, small conceptual packages constructed as we think and speak: image schemes, specific communicative and cultural situations, conceptual frameworks for processes, actions, events, etc. Mental spaces flexibly combine Structures embedded and contextual information for local purposes of thought and action. Two or more spaces project selected elements into a blended space or conceptual mix, forming a network. Elements of the inputs interact in the mix and produce a new set with emergent properties, which are not available from any other input, and which are constructed for the specific purposes of the network in its context. The model of network exposes phenomena that are invisible to an "A-to-B" transfer model : the compression of many concepts into one, principles for the construction of an optimal mixture, different versions of the mixture to suit the context and goals, etc.

EMOCCC studies generic models of conceptual integration through the poetic expression of emotions: a mixture of emission and love (the arrows of love, the beloved as emitter of light), a mixture of a container and a person feeling an emotion, among others. Rather than fixed patterns of projections between domains, these models are flexible instructions for creating conceptual mixtures, which form new conceptual units for specific purposes. This proposal is very close to the idea of distributed cognition: the construction of meaning involves not only neural activity or the anchoring of concepts in bodily feelings and perceptions, but also, and decisively, interaction with the physical, cultural and social environment, as well as individual creativity and cognitive habits acquired during the first months of life, when certain modes of spatial cognition take precedence.