Material anchors for conceptual blends

Reasoning processes require stable representations of constraints. There are two principal ways to achieve stability in conceptual models. First, the conceptual models that anthropologists call cultural models achieve representational stability via a combination of intrapersonal and interpersonal processes. Second, the association of conceptual structure with material structure can stabilize conceptual representations. This is an old and pervasive cognitive strategy. Conceptual blending theory provides a useful framework for considering the joint contributions and mutual constraints of mental and material structure. Projecting material structure into a blended space can stabilize the conceptual blend. I call an input space from which material structure is projected into a blend a 'material anchor' for the blend. The term material anchor is meant to emphasize the stabilizing role of the material structure. In this article, I will present and discuss a number of examples of materially anchored blends, which depend to different degrees on material structure. Materially anchored blends vary on a number of complexly related dimensions, including the extent to which the blend relies on the presence of material structure in the perceptual field, the complexity of the material structure, and whether the material structure was designed to support the blend or is used opportunistically. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.