Our minds, when confronted with paradoxes, react differently. In some cases, they benefit from paradoxes. Being open to paradoxes is a trait called paradoxicality. Embracing contradictions is one of the paths for paradoxicality, especially that embracing contradictions can enhance the creativity of individuals and teams. Similarly, conceptual blending is a method of generating new ideas by combining two concepts. It involves cognitive processes that combine words, images, and ideas within a mental network to create meaning. Contemporary perspectives indicate that the tensions between opposing ideas can be constructive (differing from the Festinger’s belief that the tension between contradictions is unpleasant and the mind tends to reduce it). An example is Janusian thinking, drawing inspiration from Janus, an ancient Roman god with two faces looking in opposite directions. Niels Bohr, for example, believed that by holding opposites together, the mind can reach a new level where traditional convergent thinking is suspended. Paradoxical thinking refers to an individual’s internal contradictions and posits that limitations arise from an individual’s limited frame of reference, particularly when avoiding internal paradoxes. Paradoxical thinking is understood here as a cognitive process marked by contradictions.

In this book, we have explored the view that there is ample empirical evidence to suggest that the full range of mental grammatical knowledge, from morphemes to abstract syntactic patterns, can best be described as constructions. We have seen that Construction Grammar can explain how children acquire English and that it provides a cognitively plausible account of the synchronic variation of Englishes across the globe as well as the diachronic changes that affected the English language over the centuries. In this final chapter, I will show you how we can bring together everything that we have learnt so far to analyse authentic constructs. As you know, outside of textbooks, constructs are often going to be fairly complex and will involve the activation of a multitude of constructions. I will, therefore, introduce you to a representation system (Constructional Approach to Syntactic Analysis; Herbst and Hoffmann 2018) that allows us to illustrate the various constructions that combine to produce complex utterances. Then, I will conclude the book by briefly discussing some phenomena that I, personally, think are currently emerging as ‘hot topics’ in constructionist research.

The invention of imaginary worlds may be understood as a powerful tool for exploring experience, discovering the self, and creating knowledge and meaning. An imagined world is an earth or universe or a system of make-believe ideas and things that may be contemplated in the mind, though it remains veritably unexperienced. In childhood, worldplay (paracosm play) refers to imaginative pretense that is persistent, cumulative, and constructive (maps, stories, drawings, and more may be generated). In adulthood, worldplay refers to the world-building narratives of writers and artists; to the plausible reconstructions, scenarios, and probable worlds of social scientists; and to the theoretical suppositions and possible worlds of scientists. As such, worldplay presents a unique opportunity to probe what-if cognition. Indeed, as the history of its study indicates, world invention as play and as creative strategy tells us much about development of imaginative thinking and the growth of creative competence across the lifespan.

In the Introduction, the author goes through conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual blending theory, illustrating how conceptual metaphors arise from the embodied and cultural situation of human actors. He then argues that such approaches are productive when it comes to Homer, allowing us to understand entire domains of experience in coherent ways. He also argues that the Homeric corpus is important for the modern theory in general, since Homer represents the earliest sustained text in the unbroken western tradition in which time, speech, and thought are described.