Blending defined on difference, and an implementation using dynamical approach

摘要

The human cognitive ability to blend mental objects (blending) has been a subject of interest in cognitive linguistics. Some researchers are motivated to give formal descriptions to concepts developed in cognitive linguistics. We have formulated conditions of blending that provide testable conditions to classify whether the final product of blending could be uniquely produced as the result of processing the whole of the word combinations. Our formulation allows us to theoretically test the conditions of blending up to an indefinitely large series of word combinations. Such a formal description of the conditions of blending has not appeared in previous studies. We demonstrated our formulation by implementing a neural network model, as a dynamical system. As the results of computer simulations showed, we found that the model exhibits “context-dependency” and “ambiguity” (probabilistic behavior) in the process of blending. This can be seen as a model of communication, more generally, demonstrating a process that involves a series of making of meanings.