Conceptual blending

The concept of conceptual blending builds upon Fauconnier's theory of "mental spaces", which suggests that understanding meaning is not simply derived from comprehending words and sentences alone but involves constructing meaning, referred to as conceptualization. Although Fauconnier presented his theory, Turner linked meaning-making to conceptual metaphors. Ultimately, their collaboration revealed that certain semantic issues align with neither perspective. As a result, they developed the theory of conceptual blending, which facilitates the creation of new meanings, provides global insight, and enables conceptual compression for memory retention and manipulation of scattered domains of meaning. Conceptual blending is a mental operation that leads to the creation of new meanings, global insights, and conceptual compression for memory and manipulation of dispersed domains of meaning. The nature of the operation involves creating a partial match between two input mental spaces to selectively explore a new "blended" mental space and dynamically develop the emergent structure. Mental spaces are small conceptual packets constructed during thinking and speaking to enable understanding and practical action. They are highly detailed sets containing elements structured by cognitive frameworks and models. The purpose of this descriptive-analytical research was to answer the following question:  How has conceptual blending been employed in studying embodied metaphors in Surah Al-Hashr? To this end, the article attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of conceptual blending theory in the embodied metaphors of Surah Al-Hashr. These metaphors, derived from human bodily experiences, expand into non-physical, abstract, and intangible spaces, emphasizing the importance of emerging concepts in understanding and interpreting God's intended meaning. The study's findings indicate how the expansion of concepts and linguistic thought in Surah Al-Hashr's seven verses (2, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18, and 19) begins with bodily experiences and progresses through blended spaces. This ultimately challenges and analyzes cognitive processes, thus influencing the worldview of the audience.

Background: Many efforts have been put into using serious games for education over the past two decades. Although there are different definitions for serious games, there is a relative agreement that the education of knowledge or skills through or by means of entertainment is at the heart of every serious game. However, educational capacities of serious games and learning strategies exploited in them require further studies.Aims: Considering the capacities of Fauconnier and Turner’s Blending theory, this paper aims to show that the learning strategies in serious games can have other dimensions.Methodology: This paper employs a conceptual and theoretical analysis methodology, drawing on Fauconnier and Turner’s Conceptual Blending Theory to examine the learning strategies embedded in serious games. Additionally, it utilizes a case study approach, analyzing the serious game FLIGBY to illustrate how structural and conceptual blending contribute to creative learning.Findings: The focus point of the paper as the source of the generation of different kinds of unconscious learning processes will be conceptual blending. In the end, the paper will also introduce the serious game FLIGBY from the perspective of Fauconnier and Turner’s blending theory at both structural and conceptual levels.Conclusions: By means of blending theory, it will be discussed that the elevation of serious games to a higher level is possible; a level that will not only reduce the tiredness of serious games but also pursue a more innovative learning, happening at two levels of structural and conceptual.