Kontroverse Begriffe verhandeln

Interaktive Bedeutungskonstitution durch Mental Spaces und Frames

Abstract

This paper examines the interactive process of meaning constitution of con­troversial concepts from the perspective of Interactional Linguistics and Cognitive Lin­guistics. Based on the fact that, despite the expanded methodological repertoire and scopus of research on talk-in-interaction, the interactive construction of linguistic meanings continues to play only a minor role, it is argued that Fauconnier’s theory of so-called “Mental Spaces” including frames (which structure Mental Spaces) allows to precisely describe both the online process of lexical meaning formation and its relevance to lan­guage use in interaction. Specifically, three procedures of implicit metalinguistic elabo­rations are explicated with reference to their underlying cognitive activities: conceptual integration, conceptual disintegration, conceptual elaboration. Following Deppermann’s (2007: 225) proposal of a “methodological mentalism”, the increased inclusion of cog­nitive-linguistic issues in Interactional Linguistics opens up a programmatic perspective for more comprehensive studies of word meanings in context.