A Cognitive Analysis of Crime: Taking Bo Xilai’s Bribery Crime as an Example

Abstract

In the judgment of the first instance for Bo Xilai’s case, the space-builder “The court herein believes…”activates a conceptual integration network of criminal judgment, which involves four mental spaces: two input spaces, the generic space and the blended space. Its cognitive outcome is the blended space, in which the core content is: Bo Xilai is convicted of bribery and sentenced to life imprisonment as well as life deprivation of political rights and confiscation of all personal property. The cognitive analysis of this conceptual integration network justifies that the defendant`s act constitutes a bribery crime.