Captures one of the central structuring properties associated with mental space formation and their proliferation in terms of a mental spaces lattice. The access principle holds that any linguistic expression that names or describes a particular element in a given mental space may be employed in order to access an element in a distinct mental space that is linked to it via a connector. In other words, the access principle captures the insight that an element in one mental space can be accessed by its counterpart element in another by virtue of the counterparts being related by connectors.

To illustrate, consider the following example: James Bond is a top British spy. In the film, Sean Connery gets to kiss Pussy Galore. In this example, each sentence sets up its own mental space, involving the elements James Bond in the first, and Sean Connery and Pussy Galore in the second. As James Bond and Sean Connery (the actor who played James Bond in the movie Goldfinger) are counterparts linked by a connector, the expression can be used to access or identify the character he plays: we are meant to understand that in the movie it is James Bond (rather than Sean Connery who is not in fact a spy) who does the kissing.