It is with great sadness that we share with you that Gilles Raymond Fauconnier, distinguished professor emeritus of cognitive science, died February 3, 2021. He was 76.
Fauconnier is best remembered as an innovative scholar whose work was centered in the fields of cognitive science and linguistics. His book “Mental Spaces” (first published in 1984) is a seminal work in cognitive semantics, a departure from formal approaches to meaning that instead emphasizes the importance of human concepts and cognitive processes. Mental space theory provides an elegant framework at the interface of semantics and pragmatics that accounts for phenomena such as indirect reference and referential opacity that had long troubled philosophers of language.
Fauconnier is also known for his joint work with Mark Turner on the development of conceptual integration or blending theory. In some ways a development of mental space theory, Fauconnier and Turner’s conceptual blending theory provided an account of the creative processes involved in even the most (apparently) mundane cases of concept combination. The publication of their jointly authored book “The Way We Think” (2002) was heralded as a major advance in cognitive linguistics and attracted the attention of scholars in anthropology, philosophy, psychology, literature and even human-computer interaction. Fauconnier’s work on conceptual blending provided a scientific foundation for understanding art, logic, reasoning, concept formation and creativity.
Born in Vannes, France, on August 19, 1944, Fauconnier began his academic training in his native France. After earning a degree in math and physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 1965, he obtained a D.E.A. in mathematical logic and the algebra of categories from the University of Paris in 1967. Fauconnier earned a Ph.D. in linguistics from UC San Diego in 1971 as one of the first three graduates of that program. He also earned a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Paris-VIII in 1973, and a Docteur ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines in 1976 from the University of Paris-VII. He combined his considerable training in linguistics and mathematics to build models of cognitively plausible models of meaning in human language.
Early in his professional career, Fauconnier taught in the program of Language Sciences at University of Paris-VIII and at the Ecole Polytechnique and served as a director of research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. In 1988, Fauconnier joined the newly formed Department of Cognitive Science at UC San Diego as a founding faculty member. Here, he remained for the rest of his academic career, serving as chair from 1998 to 2001, and impacting and inspiring generations of undergraduate and graduate students to take on the most difficult questions in the study of the human mind.
During his career, he was recognized with a number of honors and awards. This included the 1969 receipt of the Laureate of the Concours General in Mathematics and English, fellowship in the American Council of Learned Societies, two Fulbright scholarships (1968 and 1984), a 1998 Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships in the American Philosophical Society and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Beyond his considerable contributions to science and recognition by the international cognitive linguistics community, Fauconnier is also remembered by many for the warmth and savoir-faire he brought to any gathering. He was a generous spirit, one who took advantage of every opportunity to discuss the mysteries of life and the human mind.
Fauconnier’s death follows on that of his wife, Tina, in 2019. He is survived by their daughters, Isabelle and Judith, and granddaughters. Donations in his and Tina’s memory can be made to Habitat for Humanity.
We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and are grateful for having shared his intellect and friendship.
