Authors
1
PhD student of Linguistics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
In the present paper, we aim to apply the Conceptual Blending Theory proposed by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) to the analysis of one poem by Garous Abdolmalekian. Our hypothesis rests upon the fact that the same cognitive operations which occur in everyday construction and understanding of language as put forth by Blending theorists, occur also at the construction and interpretation of a literary work by authors and readers alike, operations like setting of input mental spaces, cross-space matching, blending clashing material and creating emergent structure. The poem examined in the paper, "lahzeye sheni" ("the sandy moment") is quite a long poem divided into five stanzas. The method used in the examination is a descriptive- analytic one. To use conceptual means of Blending, each stanza is a blend behind which stands an integration network composed of two input spaces which have projected selective structure onto the blend leading to emergent structure in it. For example, in one stanza, what is presented is an image in which black pieces of paper thrown out of the window turn into crows and fetch on the tree branches. This is a blend created out of two inputs of crows and black pieces of paper which are integrated together through the compression of the vital relation of Change. In general, it can be assumed that the poet, while creating the work, has passed through theses mental stages before he comes up with the present form of the poem; that is, he has formed two mental input spaces, and then merged them together only to bring about a novel concept, some emerge structure, which is the poem itself. The assumption can be extended so as to include the reader on the other side of this act of communication: the reader also, on their encounter with the poem, in order to make sense of it, has to unpack the blend which is presented to him in the poem. The reader, through the mechanisms of disintegration and decompression, try to reconstruct the mental phases the author has gone through while creating the work, and thus to gain an interpretation of it. In conclusion, what this paper reveals is the fact that literary works depend upon the same basic mental operations, here the operation of blending, which are at work in like non-literary works. Moreover, a good reader is who is able to follow the author, in a reverse manner, in his act of creation, and to achieve an active participation in his act of reading. The Blending Theory, by analyzing the cognitive processes a work of art passes through, helps readers reach higher levels of the participation of the sort mentioned.
Keywords
Language Related Research
