The Incorporation of Mental Space Theory to the Analysis of News Headlines
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.29.1.13Keywords:
mental space theory, news headlines, cognitive semantics, meaning construction, space builders.Abstract
Mental space theory as one of cognitive-semantic theories considers the operational process of mental space in connection to rational connectors that operate to find a basis for gathering mental and linguistic constructions in order to arrive at the units of meaning while interacting. This theory plays a pivotal role in establishing a basis for understanding how interlocutors create and utilize mental representations of various thoughts, especially while indulging in intricate thought processes helping interactants to generate novel ideas and solutions by combining elements from different contexts. Due to the restrictiveness in the number of words, and the focus on the most important theme, news headlines require concentration and sophistication in the process of analysis. Sometimes the readers may not arrive at the precise analysis of them. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that mental space theory can highly contribute to the analysis of news headlines. This study aims at identifying this theory comprehensively, on the one hand, and illustrates its contribution in the process of analysing news headlines, on the other hand. The current study employs a qualitative method in the process of data collection. It is qualitative for analyzing six selected news headlines with the application of mental space theory. The most significant concluding point that this study has derived is that mental space theory actively engages in illustrating the role of mind in determining the conceptual meaning of news headlines constituents
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