Constraining conceptual integration theory: Levels of blending and disintegration

This paper proposes a new typology of blends which incorporates the notion of conceptual disintegration as an indispensable counterpart to blending ('disintegration' is here used as a technical cover term for a number of more specific related phenomena complementing 'integration', such as fragmentation and differentiation). The new typology - which is meant as a supplement to Fauconnier and Turner's typology of simplex, mirror, single-scope and double-scope networks - comprises three levels of increasing complexity and sophistication. It is argued that blending often, if not always, presupposes disintegration and that disintegration in fact serves as a crucial link between the three levels. Like blending, disintegration therefore invites a description in terms of three levels. This model helps us approach the 'ubiquity problem' of conceptual integration theory (the problem of obtaining sufficient precision and adequacy in descriptions of ubiquitous phenomena), and it raises a number of new research questions.