Additional themes

A: Additional themes create mental spaces. // Tambin se llaman Mental Space Builders
Theme return
A: When we have a standard pattern of progression like continuous one (e.g. "John left. He

was tired"), sometimes the pattern gets broken/disrupted by a new unrelated theme (e.g.
"John left. He was tired. This job kills him"). But many times, the pattern is retaken, with the
theme returning identical to the ones before the pattern was interrupted (e.g. "John left. He
was tired. This job kills him. He thinks to quit")

Derived themes
A: Derived themes refer back to a topic that has been introduced earlier in the text. Derived
themes create lexical cohesion because they are linked to the previous topic in meaning,
even though the form of the words may be different. Example: "Molly had three sons. The
eldest was a doctor in a teaching hospital. The other two were studying at university." In
that sentence "the eldest" and "the other two" are derived from "three sons". The thematic
pattern is linear, but the form of the words is not exactly the same.
This pattern highlights the one general theme from which other themes are derived. The
following is the pattern of theme progression with derived themes.
Theme 1

Rheme 1;

[Hypertheme] Theme 2

Rheme 2;

Theme 3

Rheme 3;

The figure illustrates a superior theme (hypertheme); in other words, the themes in the following
sentences are smaller parts of the hypertheme. The following text shows how this pattern works in
a text. The underlined words are themes of the clauses.
Text 3: Ecuador is situated on the equator in the northwest of South America (1). The economy is
based on oil and agricultural products (2). More oil is produced in Ecuador than any other South
American country except Venezuela (3). Bananas, coffee, and cocoa are grown there (4). The
people are mostly of Indian origin (5). Several Indian languages are spoken there (6). The
currency is called the Sucre (7).
Th1 (Ecuador) + Rh1;

[Brief description of Ecuador] Th2 (The economy) + Rh2;

Th3 (More oil)

Rh 3;

Text 3 shows that the second theme (the economy), the third theme (More oil), the fourth theme
(Bananas, coffee, and cocoa), the fifth theme (Several Indian languages), and the sixth theme

(The currency) give some information concerning Ecuador. In this case, they serve as the subthemes from the hypertheme (Brief description of Ecuador).

Hypertheme
A: They are almost the same. Possible difference: Hypertheme is greater than derived

theme; in what sense? In the sense that the derived theme works for the online process of
constructing a theme, irrelevantly of the extent of your unit of analysis; e.g. "The movie was
excellent; and the dinner after awesome". Here you have already constructed a derived
theme. Now, if these two sentences were your text, the derived theme would be identical to
your hypertheme. If the text continues, then hypertheme is understood the derived theme of
what you take as your textual unit. In that sense hypertheme is more extensive than the
derived theme. But the process is the same and your book does not really draw a very
systematic distinction.

Semantic frames
A: A Frame is a schematisation of experience (a knowledge structure) which is
represented at the conceptual level and held in long-term memory. The frame
relates the elements and entities associated with a particular culturally embedded
scene from human experience. Words cannot be understood independently of the
frame with which they are associated. Frames represent a complex knowledge
structure that allows us to understand a group of related words.
Semantic Frames as background knowledge
A: Frames are conceptual structures that are evoked as unified wholes when one or some of
their participants are found in an utterance. They are entrenched, with standardised entities
participating in them. Frame (Evans, p. 222) is a schematisation of experience (a knowledge
structure), which is represented at the conceptual level and held in long-term memory. The
frame relates the elements and entities associated with a particular culturally embedded
scene from human experience. The meaning associated with a particular word cannot be
understood independently of the frame with which it is associated. The specic meaning
designated by a lexical item is represented by the gure, and is a salient subpart of a larger
frame, which represents the ground relative to which the gure is understood. Frames thus
represent a complex knowledge structure that allows us to understand, for example, a group
of related words and that also plays a role in licensing their grammatical behaviour in
sentences. (They constitute a core part of BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE)

Semantic Frames and the mechanics of hypertheme construction

A: The generation of a hypertheme makes use of various mechanisms, one of which is the
storage of semantic frames that we have in our memory. So, if I say "he slept well. His fever
is low", I know that I speak about some illness. Why? Because I have stored a semantic
frame in my mind that clusters together fever and disturbed sleep. So, in that case the
knowledge I have about recurrent instantiations of frames in real life helps me derive a
theme that is not explicitly said. So, hypertheme is an online construction that I generate
and gives me the background of my discourse, and the semantic frame is a more general
long-term memory background knowledge that helps me orient myself within a text so that
generate a hypertheme.

Mental spaces
A: They are bounded conceptual regions that are constructed on-line temporarily,
for the needs of discourse (which means locating events within temporal or locative
spaces, focus on old-new info, connect discourse through various relations of

sequence, causality, presupposition, identity etc.) Mental spaces have two opposite
characteristics: Discrete/disconnected and connected
They are domains of backstage cognition, abstract mental constructs that are
generally set up on the basis of general scenarios. They are mental constructs of
potential realities dynamically prompted as a conceptualizer listens to a string of
speech or reads a text. Examples of these are: the world defined by a picture, a
world of fiction, the world of a persons beliefs and desires, time slices, hypotheticals,
or umwelts. The theory of mental spaces is primarily a theory of referential
structure.
B: Regions of conceptual space that contain specific kinds of information, they are
constructed on the basis of generalised linguistic, pragmatic and cultural strategies, they
result in unique and temporary packets for specific purposes to the ongoing discourse.
MENTAL SPACES HAVE:
a) Elements: either entities constructed on-line or pre-existing entities in the conceptual
system. Example: noun phrases, proper names (Madonna, Elvis), descriptions ('the
queen', 'the prime minister') or pronouns (she, he, they, etc)
b) Properties and relations: how the elements contained within mental spaces are
related.
c) mental space lattices: once a mental space has been constructed, it is linked to the
other mental spaces established during discourse.
Fauconnier's definition of mental spaces: "partial structures that proliferate when we
think, talk, allowing a fine-grained partitioning of our discourse and knowledge
structures".
Mental spaces theory -> pas a ser -> Conceptual Blending theory.
Meaning construction involves 2 processes:
a) The building of mental spaces.
b) Establishment of mappings between those mental spaces.
Meaning construction is always situated or context-bound.

Mental space builders: Prepositional Phrases, Adverbs, Connectives, Verbs

A: New mental spaces can be created by linguistic markers belonging to different levels of
language structure. The picture-space in Fauconnier's example (un loco que hizo un ejemplo
de esto) is established mainly by lexical means: nouns denoting 'narrative' artefacts like
books, films, plays, pictures, etc frequently function as space-builders when occurring within
adverbial PPs. But there are more space-builder types:
morphological: tense forms, conditional forms
syntactic: conditional constructions
syntactic-semantic: subordinated clauses expressing spatial and temporal relations,
superordinated clauses containing speech-act verbs or mental-state verbs like the
government spokesman said, New York Times reported, officials believe etc
lexically-semantic: time and space expressions, sentence adverbs expressing probability.
These types of markers must be taken into consideration before deciding which phrases
and/or sentences in the input news text shall be used for summary generation, and which
shall be omitted or stored as possible background information.
Base space, also known as reality space, presents the interlocutors' shared knowledge of the
real world. Space builders are elements within a sentence that establish spaces distinct from,
yet related to the base space constructed. Space builders can be expressions like
prepositional phrases, adverbs, connectives, and subject-verb combinations that are
followed by an embedded sentence. They require hearers to establish scenarios beyond

the present point of time. A built space depicts a situation that only holds true for that space
itself, but may or may not be true in reality.
The base space and built spaces are occupied by elements that map onto each other.
These elements include categories that may refer to specific entities in those categories.
According to Fauconnier's Access Principle, specific entities of a category in a space can be
described by its counterpart category in another space even if it differs from the specific entity
in the other space. An example of a built space can be seen in the example "Mary wants to
buy a book". In this case, the built space is not that of reality, but Mary's desire space.
Though the book in reality space refers to any book in general, it can still be used to describe
the book in Mary's desire space, which may or may not be a specific book.

Textuality as semantic unity and the relevance of Frames/Mental Spaces

A: Frames and mental spaces are relevant because they are the mechanisms used in order

to construct the texts aboutness; the text itself must be sustained as new info and
sustained as old info in a dynamic fashion.
Semantic frames and Scripts
A: Words evoke certain situations and certain situations evoke certain words. In this idea,
there are two conceptual spheres involved, that well, are separated, but also related one
with the other:
1 Scene: mental representations of situations and world knowledge i.e. familiar kinds
of interpersonal transactions, any kind of coherent segment, large or small, of human
beliefs, actions, experiences, or imaginings, etc.
2 Frame: the linguistic encodings of such mental representations in terms of wordforms and constructions. i.e any system of linguistic choices that can get associated with
prototypical instances( which are essentially experiential, typical, and recurring) of scenes.
The situation model of scene must be complemented by background knowledge that
language users must have for a proper understanding of texts, and for the felicitous
production of them, which is important and take care of the communication situation and
world knowledge of potential speakers/ readers. To complement this, there is a theoretical
attempt called script theory, which is, a structure that describes appropriate sequences of
events in a particular context. Also, a predetermined, stereotyped sequence of actions that
defines a well-known situation. Thus, scripts allow for new references to objects within them
just as if these objects had been previously mentioned: it is the script itself that implicitly
introduce these objects.
Semantic Frames and Participants
A: Frames can be prompted (schema induction in order to provide a background knowledge
as a mental space base), even if participants are missing.
While some routes include obligatory relationships (invariant structure), others are
optional. For instance, pay designates a relation between BUYER and the SELLER, which
has the potential to make optional reference to GOODS and MONEY. However, not all
these participant roles need to be mentioned in any given sentence, and when they are not
mentioned, they are understood as part of the background. For example, in the sentence I
paid five pounds,we understand that this event must also have involved a SELLER and
some GOODS,even though these are not explicitly mentioned in the sentence. This
knowledge derives from our knowledge of the event frame.
The COMMERCIAL EVENT frame includes a number of attributes called participant
roles which must, at the very least, include BUYER, SELLER, GOODS and MONEY.
According to Fillmore, valence is one of the consequences of a frame like this. Valence

concerns the ways in which lexical items like verbs can be combined with other words to
make grammatical sentences. More precisely, the valence (or argument structure) of a verb
concerns the number of participants or arguments required, as well as the nature of the
arguments, that is the semantic roles assumed by those participants.
The frame thus provides a structured set of relationships that define how lexical items like
pay and buy are understood and how they can be used.
Semantic Frames and predicative Relations
A: Predicates are RELATIONS with very specific participants that prompt for Frames
(which are CONCEPTUAL structures, organised DOMAINS). Predicates and Frames
are both abstractions.
prototypical and marginal frame participants/relations
Semantic Frames and Scripts as Background Knowledge
Semantic Frames and Scripts as mechanisms of generating aboutness.
Semantic frames and Text-Expectations

Definitiveness of the notion of Text

A: Since the speaker or writer uses cohesion to signal texture, and the listener or reader
reacts to it in his interpretation of texture, it is reasonable for us to make use of cohesion
as a criterion for the recognition of the boundaries of a text. For most purposes, we can
consider that a new text begins where a sentence shows no cohesion with those that
have preceded.
The notions of Transition and Access
A: The access principle: states that: an expression that names or describes an
element in one mental space can be used to access a counterpart of that element in
another mental space. This means that connectors are a type of conceptual projection.
Usually, if a sentence shows no cohesion with what has gone before, this does indicate
a TRANSITION of some kind
Textual Continuity and Discontinuity
A: The text is continuous to itself (cohesive) and discontinuous to the rest. Every time
we choose to focus on some part of reality we generate this tendency of
continuity/discontinuity.
Mental spaces as bounded regions
A: The characteristics of them being domains, structured, sustained by frames etc.
make them "bounded" in the relevant sense. The other characteristic is that they are
interconnected (for this we get the distinction discrete/connected or
continuous/disconnected)

Mental spaces as discursively connected regions.

A: We are concerned with the ability of mental spaces as mental conceptual structures
to be interlinked. The phenomena we have seen as relevant to this function were
connectors between pragmatically identified counterparts, e.g. co-reference, and

relations that connect mental spaces in the name of identifying relational inferences
(image-representation, actor-role, definiteness through compression into a type and
presuppositional mode, etc.).

Mental Spaces and elements

A: Mental spaces contain elements, which are either entities constructed online or preexisting entities in the conceptual system. The linguistic expressions that represent
elements are noun phrases which include names and descriptions.
On-line mental space construction
Mental space builders: Prepositional Phrases, Adverbs, Connectives, SubjectVerb sequences.
A: Space builders can be expressions like prepositional phrases, adverbs,
connectives, and subject-verb combinations that are followed by an embedded
sentence. They require hearers to establish scenarios beyond the present point of time. A
built space depicts a situation that only holds true for that space itself, but may or may not be
true in reality. ADDITIONAL THEMES are Mental space builders. What is special about
space builders is that they require the hearer to set up a scenario beyond the here and now,
whether this scenario reects past or future reality, reality in some other location, hypothetical
situations, situations that reect ideas and beliefs, and so on.
Examples: Prepositional phrases (In the 80s, in theory, at the corner), Adverbs
(lately, obviously, theoretically), Connectives (if, then, either, or), Verbs selecting an
embedded clause (say, think, imagine)
Background knowledge as mental space builder, in the absence of a base.
A: Background knowledge can function as an implicit space builder.
Example: James Bond is a top British spy. The expression James Bond induces the
schema that is associated with this knowledge. There is no need to say in the book or in
the movie, because by means of our background knowledge we can know what theyre
referring to and build up an absent base (mental space).
Semantic Frames and mental space construction
A:
Frame induction and Scheme induction
A: Schema induction: it is the process whereby our conceptualisations are elaborated
and enriched by the application of large-scale and pre-assembled knowledge structures
which serve a contextualising function. It is central for meaning construction. It is a
conceptual projection mechanism that establish mappings (mappings connects
entities in one conceptual region with another, they can be conventional or constructed
online).
Mental spaces recruit semantic frames, that process is called schema induction
(semantic frames sustain mental spaces).
SCHEMA INDUCTION is the process by which a frames semantic structure is
prompted providing the background knowledge recruited in order to structure mental
spaces.
Schematisation in linguistic and conceptual organisation
A: Schematisation is a special kind of abstraction, which results in representations that
are much
less detailed than the actual utterances that give rise to them.

Schematisation results in schemas and these are achieved by setting aside points of
difference between structures, leaving just the points they have in common.
Abstraction over lexical relations within a text and the generation of texts
aboutness.
A: Abstraction is the process whereby structure emerges as the result of the
generalisation of patterns across instances of language use.
The saussurean sign and its expanded version in text-generation as utterancecomplex conceptualisation relation.
A:
Semantic identity /semantic difference and Lexical Cohesion
Semantic identity/semantic difference and mental space construction
A: Elements within different spaces can be counterparts according, for example, to their
pragmatic function. One of those functions is identity or co-reference, they are linked by
an identity connector (which are inferential, not explicit). Example: James Bond is a top
Bristih spy. In the war, he was an officer. -> In this sentence the he is an anaphora and
james bond the antecedent, they are counterparts linked by an identity connector. This
connector provide access to a counterpart in a different mental space.
Semantic Frame blending.
Part-of lexical relations (hyponymy) as a guide in mental space construction.
The notion of Base in semantics and text generation.
A: Base: mental spaces are linked to other mental spaces, one of the mental spaces
is the base: the space that remains accessible for the construction of a new mental
space.
Connectors and Counterparts.
A: Elements within different mental spaces can be linked. Those elements in different spaces
are linked by Connectors which set up mappings between Counterpart elements.
(Connectors are semantic relations)
Counterpart are established as on the basis of pragmatic functions, that is to say, when two or
more elements in different mental spaces have a related pragmatic function, they are
counterparts.
Relations structuring mental spaces.
Linguistic schemas structuring mental spaces.
A: Linguistic schemas are a special kind of abstraction, which results
Relations connecting mental spaces: identity, role-value, image-representation,
temporal sequence, causation.
A:
Triggers and Targets
A: Counterparts (mental space A and mental space B) are united by a connector. Mental
space A is the target and mental space B is the trigger.
Co-reference as a pragmatically inferred relation of identity.
A: We have two counterparts that are linked together by means of a connector. This
connector can unite both elements by means of its pragmatic relation. The connector
can be of identity if the counterparts refer to the same subject.

 Affinities and differences between the notions of Base, Domain, Background, Mental
Space, Frame.
Affinities and differences between Frames and Predicative Relations.
A: Predications are relations with very specific participants that prompt for frames.

Frames are conceptual structures organised in domains.

That is the differences. On the other hand, the similarity is that both are Schematic, in
other words, both are abstractions.

A:

Profiling relations in semantics and discourse.

Abstraction over lexical occurrences in a text and the generation of aboutness.
Predicative Relations as frame-profiling

Profiling is informally defined as conceptually highlighting some aspects of a

domain. Profiling involves selecting some aspects of a base, which is a conceptual entity
necessary for understanding what a word means. Words have profile-based organisation.
Example: elbow, its base is arm. Langacker calls the semantic pole a predication,
because predication includes the profile and the base. The base represents the scope of
predication associated with an expression.
Syntactic instantiation as profiling
A: Instantiations are specific instances of use, arising from a schematic representation, in

that sense, something instantiates (or counts as an instance of) a certain schema. Also
some schemas are instances of other schemas that are more abstract, this means there are
different levels of schematicity. In this way grammar acquires a hierarchical organisation
Profiling and allo-sentence instantiation.
A: Instantiation: needs the default order, against which it is interpreted. Example: PP V S

is an instantiation of S V PP.
- Meaning construction involves two processes 1) the building of mental spaces and 2)
the establishment of mappings between those mental spaces.