Gilles Fauconnier and the meaning of a sentence

This article reviews the major take-home points of Gilles Fauconnier’s work, especially of his collaborative work with Mark Turner on blending theory, for readers who are not familiar with this theoretical framework or who could benefit from an external perspective. I emphasize the overarching lessons to be learned from the notions of mental spaces and their connections or mappings, the advantages of using small packages instead of large domains to analyze conceptual work, how integration networks allow us to go beyond mere projections or correspondences between domains of experience, and the need to study patterns that provide a bridge between the general principles and the rich, contextualized examples that expose them. Above all, I seek to transmit Gilles Fauconnier’s message about the fascination, curiosity, ambition, and humility required by the most challenging scientific enterprise possible: understanding the human mind, from the most general principles down to the meaning of a single sentence.