13.2.Mental space construction

The analysis of force dynamics in discourse is approached from the perspective of the construction of mental spaces [4; 5]. According to G. Fauconnier [5. P. 39] these mental spaces: are internally structured by frames and cognitive models, and externally linked by connectors, that relate elements across spaces, and more generally, structures across space.

G. Fauconnier [5. P. 40] defines a space builder as «a grammatical expression that opens a new space or shifts focus to an existing space». Following his ideas, space builders were located in the discourse fragment analyzed. Elements like names, verb tenses and moods, negation, conjunctions, prepositional phrases and presuppositional constructions were used to determine when to construct new spaces or switch back to previous ones.

In the following section, I will analyze a discourse fragment uttered by the scientific advisor described above, from the double perspective of the construction of mental spaces and force dynamics.