The Literary Mind.pdf

MANY SPACES 89
applied to many specific targets and the source vocabulary has been thoroughly
shifted from the source to the generic space to be applied linguistically wherever
the generic space is applied conceptually to a target space. But the projection of
the generic space of cleansing to the particular target of wholesale killing of
unwanted ethnic groups is not yet conventional, and the use of its vocabulary for
this target is not yet the natural way to refer to the target. It follows that we are
more likely in the case of "ethnic cleansing" to notice the projection and the
generic space, and may even recognize the blended space.
Often, the blended space is forced into view. "Walking steam-engine" refers
to a human being of great mechanical vitality, industry, direction, power, and
seriousness. Many things underlying this phrase are entrenched: the projection
of the space of mechanical devices to a generic space; the shift of vocabulary to
that generic space; the wide application of that generic space to many targets;
the consequent wide application of its vocabulary to those targets; and the conventional
linguistic construction used for indicating that the target input space
has a human story but the source input space has a nonhuman story, as in "walking
encyclopedia" and "walking time-bomb." Nonetheless, "walking steam-engine"
evokes vivid specifics from the input spaces, impossibly blended. It is also an
unconventional phrase. Accordingly, we notice the blended space.
In general, generic and blended spaces become more noticeable as the projection
is less conventional, the expression is less conventional, or the projection
and the expression combine noticeably what are still regarded as incompatible
specifics. These circumstances are closely related: As the projection becomes
conventional, so does the vocabulary it carries; and in the case of source and target
input spaces, as the projection and the vocabulary become conventional, so
the source category becomes extended, making the blend look less like a blend
and more like an enlarged category. For example, the conceptual projections
underlying "intellectual progress" extend the category of progress and journey to
include mental events. Because this extension of the category is by now deeply
entrenched, "intellectual" can be viewed as compatible with "progress," and
"intellectual progress" can be taken as referring to an extended part of the category
rather than to an aggressive blend.
Even when the projection and its expression are most deeply entrenched and
least likely to be noticed, generic and blended spaces are still available. Habit has
simply made us take them for granted, rendering them invisible. The generic
space projected from journey has its own existence independent of its embedding
in the target story of the course of a life from birth to death. It can be projected
to a different target altogether. We can project it onto a particular span of life,
mental activity like problem solving, or the "wandering" characteristic of daydreams.
We can project it onto marriage or artwork or the building of a book-