Seeing clearly: Frame Semantic, Psycholinguistic, and Cross ...

Chapter 3
Other Cognitive Approaches
3.1 Introduction
Although the Frame Semantic analysis of the uses of see given in Chapter 2 allows
us to make many useful generalizations about the relations among the participants in various
situations which we talk about using the word see, there are some points which are handled
in a somewhat unsatisfactory fashion. In particular, the use of the feature irrealis as part
of the semantics of envision and hallucinate doesn't really tell us everything we need to
know about these senses, and this feature appears only with regard to these two senses|we
are left with just the stipulation that all the other senses are realis by default. Another
way of explaining the relation between perception and cognition in the event structure of
the various senses is to represent the semantics of the seen in terms of Fauconnier's (1985
[1994]) mental spaces. This approach is complementary to Frame Semantics; as Lako &
Sweetser (1985:x-xi) point out, Idealized Cognitive Models or frames can be used to express
conceptual structure (relations among roles), while mental spaces can be used to express
referential structure (relations between roles and their llers). 1
In this chapter, I will show how a mental spaces notation can express and clarify
the relations among some of the senses de ned in the previous chapter (only those senses
where mental spaces seems to reveal something substantive will be discussed). I will also
1 I am using the term \referential structure" in a very broad sense here. The llers may themselves
be frames, as in Weddings always make me cry, where the whole wedding event is the cause of the tears.
The llers may also be mappings, as in His description of his job history was less than truthful, which
describes a relationship of \inequality" between two mappings (descriptions) from actual events in his past,
an idealized (truthful) one and the one \he" gave. Mental spaces can also be used to represent these sorts
of \meta-referential" mappings, but I will not discuss them here.
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