The meaning of English phrasal verbs can be retrieved by means of conceptual blending because blending exploits counterpart connections between input spaces and such connections motivate the way speakers conceptualize the structure of grammatical patterns. Particularly, the semantics of the verb (Input space I) blends with the semantics of the particle (Input Space II) and gives rise to a unified construction (Blended space). For example, in a sentence like her playing the piano brought down the house the phrasal verb “bring down” means to impress. The semantics of the verb “to bring”, which means “to carry”, “to convey”, “to lead”, “to cause to occur” blends with the semantics of the particle “down”, which denotes downward motion in a container and at a more figurative interpretation “down is up”.
The central hypothesis for this blending process develops as follows:
1. At a more abstract level, conceptual blending proceeds via the establishment and the exploitation of mappings (the semantics of the verb maps to the semantics of the particle).
2. After the projection of input spaces I and II to the blended space, background knowledge is activated (the speaker is in a position to understand that someone who plays the piano cannot bring down a house literally, but rather metaphorically).
3. The use of mental imagery is licensed (the speaker is in a position to understand that “bring down” has an idiomatic meaning because it denotes that something was caused/lead to occur, therefore “bring down” denotes the positive change of a situation ([bring = lead] + [down = up] à lead up à impress).
Note: Paper presented at the "Blending Teleconference 2015" in collaboration with Case Western Reserve University (USA).
