Original scientific paper

Counterfactual Conditional Clauses, Mental Spaces, and Metonymy in the Context of Conceptual Integration Theory

Branimir Belaj
Goran Tanacković Faletar

Abstract

This paper sets out to analyze the semantic aspect of Croatian counterfactual expressions in
the context of Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT) as a theory that most elegantly and most thoroughly
explains their meaning and their logic. On the corpus of Croatian counterfactuals and in
the light of the automatic nature of the process of conceptual integration we also examine the
cognitiveconceptual status of the four types of mental spaces and their elements: the input spaces,
the generic space and the projection space (the blend). On the basis of the differences obtained
between the four types of mental spaces, we divide them into background, highlighted and focal
mental spaces. In the context of the analysis of Croatian counterfactuals, we further discuss the
place and manner of interpretation, most frequently, of metonymy type WHOLE FOR PART and
propose the introduction of a fifth mental space where some expressions of this metonimic type
would be interpreted, namely the pre-input space.

Keywords

counterfactuals; mental spaces; metonymy; metaphor; conceptual integration theory; cognitive linguistics

Hrčak ID:

13493

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/13493

Publication date:

25.9.2006.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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