Exploring the application of theories of mental spaces and conceptual blending in semantic-rhetorical analysis of Persian poetry

Theory of mental spaces is a theory derived from the theory of possible worlds. This theory and its derived theory, conceptual blending, are useful tools for text analysis in the field of cognitive poetics. The purpose of this study is to investigate how these theories encounter Persian poetry. To examine the application of these theories in the analysis of Persian poetry, we first discuss their philosophical aspects and theoretical foundations, and then test how they work in a lyric by Saadi. The results of the present study show that the theory of mental spaces, despite its generally appropriate function, in some positions such as allegorical structures, does not have the necessary efficiency in semantic analysis of poetry and in such circumstances, the theory derived from that, theory of conceptual blending, can cover the functional vacuum. We have also shown that the theory of mental spaces is a tool that explains and analyzes the linguistic nature of ambiguity, as one of the most important elements of rhetoric in poetry.