The process that results in the formation of a blended space in an integration network, giving rise to emergent structure.

To illustrate, consider the following utterance: In France Clinton wouldn’t have been harmed by his affair with Monica Lewinsky. This utterance prompts for a blended space in which we understand that as President of France, Clinton would not have been harmed politically by his relationship with Lewinsky.

The integration network for this expression includes two input spaces. One input space contains Clinton, lewinsky and their relationship. This space is structured by the frame American politics. In this frame, there is a role for American president together with certain attributes associated with this role such as moral virtue, a symbol of which is marital fidelity. In this space, marital infidelity causes political harm. In the second input space, which is structured by the frame French politics, there is a role for French president. In this frame, it is an accepted part of French public life that the President sometimes has a mistress. In this space, marital infidelity does not result in political harm. The two inputs are related by virtue of a generic space which contains the generic roles country, head of state, sexual partner and citizens. The generic space establishes cross-space counterparts in the input spaces. The blended space contains bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, as well as the roles French president and mistress of French president, with which Clinton and Lewinsky are respectively associated. Crucially, the frame that structures the blend is French politics rather than American politics. It follows that in the blend, Clinton is not politically harmed by his marital infidelity.

Conceptual integration has a number of constitutive principles, goals of blending and governing principles that govern the way in which the process of integration occurs.