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Style: A Computational and Conceptual Blending-Based Approach

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The Structure of Style

Abstract

This chapter proposes a new approach to style, arising from our work on computational media using structural blending, which enriches the conceptual blending of cognitive linguistics with structure building operations in order to encompass syntax and narrative as well as metaphor. We have implemented both conceptual and structural blending, and conducted initial experiments with poetry, including interactive multimedia poetry, although the approach generalizes to other media. The central idea is to generate multimedia content and analyze style in terms of blending principles, based on our finding that different principles from those of common sense blending are often needed for some contemporary poetic metaphors.

†J.A. Goguen: Deceased

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Notes

  1. 1.

    However, they do not necessarily apply to non-Western langauges and cultures; for example, Balinese narrative does not follow the narrative presupposition [3].

  2. 2.

    This diagram is “upside down” from that of Fauconnier and Turner, in that our arrows go up, with the generic G on the bottom, and the blend B on top; this is consistent with the basic image schema more is up, as well as with conventions for such diagrams in mathematics. Also, Fauconnier and Turner do not include the morphism \(G{\rightarrow} B\), and G plays a different role.

  3. 3.

    The term “generic space” is used in cognitive linguistics [7], but the term “base space” better describes the role of this space in our approach to interface and active multimedia design.

  4. 4.

    Since ‘water’ and ’land’ are data elements they are handled specially (both are preserved in the blended space and they are not identified – see [11] for details about the handling of datasorts).

  5. 5.

    For such rules, our saliency is similar to entrenchment in the sense of [29]; we assume saliency values are in the unit interval \(0\leq v \leq 1\), and that they follow the fuzzy logic of [10].

  6. 6.

    This work is a commentary on racial politics and the limitations of simplistic binary views of social identity. The dynamic nature of social identity is also reflected in the way the program produces different poems with different novel metaphors each time it is run (though it is unlikely that any one user would read a large number of these).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Digital Media Program, School of Literature, Communication and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Joseph A. Goguen† & D. Fox Harrell

Authors
  1. Joseph A. Goguen†
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  2. D. Fox Harrell
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Correspondence to D. Fox Harrell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, West 31st Street 10, Chicago, 60616, Illinois, USA

    Shlomo Argamon

  2. MITRE Corporation, Bedford, 01730, Massachusetts, USA

    Kevin Burns

  3. Music Department, University of California San Diego, Gilman Drive 9500, La Jolla, 92093-0326, California, USA

    Shlomo Dubnov

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Goguen†, J.A., Harrell, D.F. (2010). Style: A Computational and Conceptual Blending-Based Approach. In: Argamon, S., Burns, K., Dubnov, S. (eds) The Structure of Style. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12337-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12337-5_12

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