Modelling Conceptualisations: Combining Image Schemas to Model Events

Abstract

The notion that image schemas are used as conceptual building blocks in language and conceptualisations as a whole has been repeatedly pushed. It was repeatedly demonstrated that the qualification for image-schematic concepts and the identification between the different image schemas are problems for the research field. It was suggested that more complex image schemas could be viewed as combinations of simpler image-schematic structures, or components from different families. This chapter explores this by looking specifically at image schema combinations. After introducing three different types of image-schematic combinations it also aims to demonstrate how these combinations can be considered to construct the conceptualisation of complex image schemas and simple events as in ‘image schema profiles’. This is placed into the framework of formalising image schemas by discussing their usefulness in commonsense reasoning problems as well as an ISLFOL formalisation of the dynamic aspects of CONTAINMENT and the simple image-schematic events BLOCKAGE, CAUSED MOVEMENT and BOUNCING. The chapter includes considerations and discussions on : Commonsense reasoning with image schemas imple vs. complex image schemas Three types of image schema combinations Formalising the Dynamic Aspects of CONTAINMENT Formalising BLOCKAGE, CAUSED MOVEMENT and BOUNCING