Conceptual blending is where two or more existing concepts are blended together to form a new concept. The blending of the concepts is done in a way that is non-arbitrary. A new concept is formed by taking the meaning of one concept and the form of another. For example, the concept of a car and the concept of a plane are blended to form the concept of a carplane. The concept of a carplane is a non-arbitrary combination of the two concepts. The concept of a carplane is a new concept, with a new meaning, and a new form.
Conceptual blending theory is a theory of how concepts are formed. The theory was developed by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) and was inspired by the theory of conceptual metaphor developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Conceptual blending theory is an extension of conceptual metaphor theory, and conceptual metaphor theory is an extension of the theory of categorization developed by Rosch (1975).
Here are some examples of conceptual blending (where sometimes 2 seemingly disparate ideas are blended):
Idea 1: Airplane
Idea 2: Car
Blended Idea: Flying Car: A car that can fly.
Idea 1: Hierarchy
Idea 2: Attire
Blended Idea: Hierarchical attire: In a workplace, a CEO may be wearing a different kind of attire (more expensive) than a director in the company. And a director would probably be wearing more expensive attire than a janitor in the company. So you have a kind of hierarchical attire.
Idea 1: Workplace Aptitude Tests Idea 2: Cage-Match Fights Blended Idea: Workplace cage-match fights: Sometimes companies adopt aptitude tests to assess different job applicants. And then they have “job fairs”, sort of like cage-match fights, with the top candidates from the aptitude tests engaged in cage-match fights with each other
another variation
I'm a scientist, Currently resear hing lanuage. I'm building a machine which generates completely new concepts based upon 2 or more existing cnocepts. For example, given f("cold religion") the output would be:
coldism - a religion devoted to the cold, adherents of the religion believe that the cold is God