A Cognitive Study On The Meaning Construction Of The English Subjunctive Mood From Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

The English subjunctive mood has been received much concern from linguistics andgrammarians, who have tried to probe into the issue from various aspects, includingdefining, classifying, and discussing its functions in communication. There have been evendebates on the value of its existence. While with the development of linguistics, themeaning construction of subjunctive mood becomes the focus of study.Conceptual Blending Theory (hereafter called CBT for short) has offered a means toelucidate process of meaning construction. CBT holds that conceptual blending is a basiccognitive process operated with a sound and dynamic system. Conceptual blendinggenerally operates among four spaces, two input spaces, the generic space and the blendedspace. There is a cross-space mapping of counterpart connections between input spaces andselective projection of structure from the inputs to the blended space through composition,completion and elaboration. In the blended, a novel conceptual structure is developed.The paper, taking the If-Clause Subjunctive Mood (later called If-CSM for short) asan example, attempts to create a uniform and systematic conceptual blending networkmodel to specify the comprehension of the true nature of If-CSM based on Fauconnier’snetwork model within CBT. The model we have established is as follows: two mentalspaces input1and input2, which are based on counter factuality and fact. The elements orpart of elements are mapped into generic space. The specific composition in generic spaceis projected the blended space. The study selects our corpus from domestic andinternational authoritative grammar books. Within CBT, we classify If-CSM into threecategories: the If-CSM of mirror networks, If-CSM of single-scope networks and If-CSMof double-scope networks. Through the classification of corpus and on-line analysis, wefind that the meaning construction of If-CSM is a cross-space mapping process, whichmainly includes metaphoric mapping and analogical mapping. Besides, somenon-linguistic elements also have effect on the meaning construction.The study is a breakthrough in the traditional classification of If-CSM subjunctivemood, and also a beneficial attempt to research. In addition, it not only reveals thegenerating process of If-CSM based on CBT, but also reinforces the explanatory power ofthe theory itself by offering supplements to explore the counterfactual.