ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the view of meaning construction developed in cognitive semantics. It considers how larger units of language like sentences and texts are meaningful. Gilles Fauconnier is the leading proponent of Mental Spaces Theory, a highly influential cognitive theory of meaning construction. The chapter discusses how Mental Spaces Theory accounts for a diverse range of linguistic phenomena relating to meaning at the level of sentence and text, including referential ambiguities and the role of tense and aspect in discourse management and in epistemic distance. According to Fauconnier, meaning construction involves two processes: first, the building of mental spaces; and second, the establishment of mappings between those mental spaces. Linguistic expressions are seen as underdetermined prompts for processes of rich meaning construction: linguistic expressions have meaning potential. In addition to constructing mental spaces and setting up new or existing elements within those spaces, meaning construction also processes information about how the elements contained within mental spaces are related.
