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Journal ArticleDOI

What, If Anything, Is Linguistic Creativity?

01 Jul 2019-Vol. 41, Iss: 2, pp 173-183
TL;DR: In this article, the nature of creativity in language and linguistics is investigated, and it is shown that pure E-creativity may only be found in the case of aberration.
Abstract: Summary This paper investigates the nature of creativity in language and linguistics. Following Sampson (2016), it distinguishes between F-creativity (which roughly equals linguistic productivity) and E-creativity (which leads to new and unexpected innovations). These two notions of creativity are discussed on the basis of examples from three different domains: snow cloning, mismatch/coercion, and aberration. It is shown that pure E-creativity may only be found in the case of aberration. Both snow cloning and mismatch/coercion are examples for F-creativity, but to varying degrees. As a consequence, it is suggested that in practice, F- and E-creativity actually form a cline, rather than a dichotomy.

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Citations
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Peer ReviewDOI
22 Jun 2023
TL;DR: The authors give an overview of the origin and the current state of the art of constructionist approaches, focusing, on the one hand, on basic concepts like the notion of "constructions", while at the same time offering an in-depth discussion of current research trends and open questions.
Abstract: Construction Grammar (CxG) has developed into a broad and highly diverse family of approaches that have in common that they see constructions, i.e. form-meaning pairs at various levels of abstraction and complexity, as the basic units of language. This Element gives an overview of the origin and the current state of the art of constructionist approaches, focusing, on the one hand, on basic concepts like the notion of 'constructions', while at the same time offering an in-depth discussion of current research trends and open questions. It discusses the commonalities and differences between the major constructionist approaches, the organization of constructional networks as well as ongoing research on linguistic creativity, multimodality and individual differences. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT) was used by as mentioned in this paper to measure divergent thinking abilities of students in the context of word-formation tasks, and the results showed that divergent-thinking abilities negatively correlate with the general tendency to coin new complex words in a more economical fashion.
Abstract: Abstract This article presents the results of a large-scale interdisciplinary project aimed at a corroboration of the role of creativity in the way university undergraduates (N = 309) coin new complex words. Specifically, the tendency towards economy of expression, preferred by a speaker, and the tendency towards semantic transparency, preferred by a listener, were examined in the broader context of the creative potential of an individual, understood as divergent thinking abilities captured by the Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT). The results indicate that divergent thinking abilities, as operationalized by the TTCT scores, negatively correlate with the general tendency to coin new complex words in a more economical fashion. More specifically, the general tendency towards economy of expression correlates negatively with Elaboration, Creative Strengths, and potentially with Creativity. A more detailed analysis indicates that this is especially the case for the word-formation task, where open-ended responses were analyzed and a drawing served as stimulus material for word formation. These results are not only novel but also encouraging for future research into the role of psychological factors in the psycholinguistic process of word formation conceived as a creative act of a language user.

16 citations

MonographDOI
20 Jan 2022
TL;DR: This paper presented cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, showing how we manipulate the range of linguistic tools at our disposal to create an infinite range of words and meanings and provided both a theoretical account of creativity in word-formation and word-interpretation, and an experimental framework with corresponding results obtained from more than seven hundred participants.
Abstract: There are many ways in which we, as speakers, are creative in how we form and interpret new words. Working across the interfaces of psychology, linguistics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics, this book presents cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, showing how we manipulate the range of linguistic tools at our disposal to create an infinite range of words and meanings. It provides both a theoretical account of creativity in word-formation and word-interpretation, and an experimental framework with the corresponding results obtained from more than seven hundred participants. Data drawn from this vast range of speakers shows how creativity varies across gender and age, and demonstrates the complexity of relationships between the examined variables. Pioneering in its scope, this volume will pave the way for a brand new area of research in the formation and interpretation of complex words.

4 citations

Book ChapterDOI
31 Jan 2022
TL;DR: This article examined formal, grammatical, communicative, and experimental evidence for the meaning of superlative quantifiers and showed how a linguistic problem can be attacked from any one of these directions, or a combination thereof.
Abstract: The goal of this course is to introduce you to methods of linguistic research. Specifically, we will examine the following approaches: 1. Formal, grammatical principles 2. Universal principles 3. Pragmatic, communicative principles 4. Experimental evidence 5. Corpus study 6. Descriptive approaches We will show how a linguistic problem can be attacked from any one of these directions, or a combination thereof. As a test case, we will look at accounts of the meaning of superlative quantifiers (at least and at most).

3 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article developed an operational definition of snowclones, arguing that three criteria are decisive: (i) the existence of a lexically fixed source construction; (ii) partial productivity; (iii) "extravagant" formal and/or functional characteristics.
Abstract: The concept of ‘snowclones’ has gained interest in recent research on linguistic creativity and in studies of extravagance and expressiveness in language. However, no clear criteria for identifying snowclones have yet been established, and detailed corpus-based investigations of the phenomenon are still lacking. This paper addresses this research gap in a twofold way. On the one hand, we develop an operational definition of snowclones, arguing that three criteria are decisive: (i) the existence of a lexically fixed source construction; (ii) partial productivity; (iii) ‘extravagant’ formal and/or functional characteristics. On the other hand, we offer an empirical investigation of two patterns that have often been mentioned as examples of snowclones in the previous literature, namely [ the mother of all X] and [X BE the new Y]. We use collostructional analysis and distributional semantics to explore the partial productivity of both patterns’ slot fillers. In sum, we argue that the concept of snowclones, if properly defined, can contribute substantially to our understanding of creative language use, especially regarding the question of how social, cultural, and interpersonal factors influence the choice of more or less salient linguistic constructions.

1 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Methodological preliminaries of generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammar; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning.

12,586 citations


"What, If Anything, Is Linguistic Cr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...(Chomsky, 1965, p. 6) “Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied....

    [...]

Book
01 May 1965
TL;DR: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence as discussed by the authors have been used as a theory of performance for language learning. But they have not yet been applied to the problem of language modeling.
Abstract: : Contents: Methodological preliminaries: Generative grammars as theories of linguistic competence; theory of performance; organization of a generative grammar; justification of grammars; formal and substantive grammars; descriptive and explanatory theories; evaluation procedures; linguistic theory and language learning; generative capacity and its linguistic relevance Categories and relations in syntactic theory: Scope of the base; aspects of deep structure; illustrative fragment of the base component; types of base rules Deep structures and grammatical transformations Residual problems: Boundaries of syntax and semantics; structure of the lexicon

12,225 citations

Book
15 Mar 1995
TL;DR: In this paper, the interaction between verbs and constructions is discussed, and relations among constructions are investigated in the context of English Ditransitive construction and English Caused-Motion construction.
Abstract: Acknowledgments 1: Introduction 2: The Interaction between Verbs and Constructions 3: Relations among Constructions 4: On Linking 5: Partial Productivity 6: The English Ditransitive Construction 7: The English Caused-Motion Construction 8: The English Resultative Construction 9: The Way Construction 10: Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

3,382 citations


"What, If Anything, Is Linguistic Cr..." refers background in this paper

  • ...…“Constructions are combined freely to form actual expressions as long as they can be construed as not being in conflict” (Goldberg, 2006, p. 27) and that “coercion is not a purely pragmatic process; rather, it is only licensed by particular constructions in the language” (Goldberg, 1995, p. 159)....

    [...]

  • ...The second phenomenon at issue here is mismatch/coercion (see Adele Goldberg, 1995; Ray Jackendoff, 1997; Elaine Francis & Laura Michaelis, 2003)....

    [...]

  • ...This is further underlined by studies in construction grammar (such as Goldberg 1995, 2006), where we find evidence that “Constructions are combined freely to form actual expressions as long as they can be construed as not being in conflict” (Goldberg, 2006, p. 27) and that “coercion is not a…...

    [...]

Book
20 Dec 1996
TL;DR: Questions, goals, assumptions - universal grammar, necessities and assumptions, syntactocentrism and perfection interfaces, representational modularity - the 'articulatory-perceptual' interfaces, the phonology-syntax interface, the 'conceptual-intentional' interface, embedding mismatches between syntactic structure and conceptual structure.
Abstract: Questions, goals, assumptions - universal grammar, necessities and assumptions, syntactocentrism and perfection interfaces, representational modularity - the 'articulatory-perceptual' interfaces, the phonology-syntax interface, the 'conceptual-intentional' interface, embedding mismatches between syntactic structure and conceptual structure, the tripartite parallel architecture, representional modularity more on the syntax-semantics interface - enriched composition, aspectual coercions, reference transfer functions, arguments structure alternations, adjective-noun modification, summary, anaphora, quantification, remarks the lexical interface - lexical insertion versus lexical licensing, PIL=CIL, PIL and CIL are at S-structure, checking argument structure, remarks on processing, the lexicon in a more general mental ecology lexical entries, lexical rules - broadening the conception of the lexicon, morphosyntax versus morphophonology, inflectional versus derivational morphology, productivity versus semiproductivity, psycholinguistic considerations, 'optimal coding' of semiproductive forms, final remarks remarks on productive morphology - introduction, the place of traditional morphophonology, phonological and class-based allomorphy, suppletion of composed forms by irregulars, the status of zero inflections, why the lexicon cannot be minimalist idioms and other fixed expressions - reviews of the issues, the wheel of fortune corpus: if it isn't lexical, what is it? lexical insertion of idioms as Xos, lexical licensing of units larger than Xo, parallels between idioms and compounds, syntactic mobility of (only) some idioms, idioms that are specializations of other idiomatic constructions, relation to construction grammar, summary epilogue: how language helps us think - introduction, brain phenomena opaque to awareness, language is not thought, and vice versa, phonetic form is conscious , thought is not, the significance of consciousness again, first way language helps us think: linguistic communication, second way language helps us think: making conceptual structure available for attention, third way language helps us think: valuation of conscious percepts, summing up,

1,310 citations

MonographDOI
22 Dec 2005
TL;DR: This paper provides responses to the points raised in this volume in an e-ort to evaluate, clarify and extend some of the arguments in Constructions at Work.
Abstract: This paper provides responses to the points raised in this volume in an e¤ort to evaluate, clarify and extend some of the arguments in Constructions at Work.

556 citations

Trending Questions (1)
What are the linguistic alternatives to creativity?

The paper discusses two notions of linguistic creativity: F-creativity (linguistic productivity) and E-creativity (new and unexpected innovations).