Conceptual Integration Theory And Subjunctive Mood

Conceptual integration theory or conceptual blending theory, brought forward by Fauconnier in the 1990s, is an original theory in the western cognitive linguistic field. This theory has attracted much attention both at home and abroad due to its forceful explanatory power. Scholars have proved its explanatory power from various angles, but few of them apply this theory to the systematic analysis of the subjunctive mood.Definition of the subjunctive mood comes out naturally in the wake of the comparisons among tense and mood; the subjunctive mood, the imperative mood and the indicative mood. The studies of the subjunctive mood home and abroad, the vitality of the subjunctive mood and the classifications of the subjunctive mood are followed.With the development of cognitive researches on language itself, we find that the conceptual integration theory can offer the possibilities for exploring the hidden cognitive mechanism involved in the interpretation of the subjunctive mood. Conceptual integration has complete networks, which function independently according to a set of uniform structural and dynamic principles. The basic operation comprises four mental spaces: two input spaces, one generic space and one blended space. In blending, structures from input spaces are selectively projected to a separate "blended space". Through composition, completion and elaboration, the blended space develops structures that are not provided by the inputs.This thesis studies the subjunctive mood and the conceptual integration theory in detail respectively, and then apply the conceptual integration theory to the analysis of the subjunctive mood. The integration networks of the subjunctive mood capture the systematic correspondence between the current context and the counterfactual scenario in the blended space. The projection of structure from the inputs and the emergent structure that arises in the blend are both constrained by structural relations between the elements in each of the spaces. Different types of the subjunctive mood, especially the unreal conditional sentences are elaborated by the conceptual integration theory with examples and figures. At the same time, its limitations are pointed out for the sake of further research.