Creativity in language use
Table of contents
Creativity is such a common but yet (or therefore) elusive word that it is difficult to know where to begin. One of the first questions is, for example, whether one refers to creativity as a word or as a term, a concept, a category, a topic of investigation in linguistics (or other disciplines) or a capacity, a human ability, characteristic, quality or personality trait. In contrast to many other topics in linguistics that immediately signal their affiliation to the study of language, since they are part of special linguistics terminology (i.e. most ‘topic’ entries in the Handbook of Pragmatics), creativity is one of those vague umbrella terms that will mean something to everyone, i.e. linguists and non-linguists, researchers and non-researchers alike. In consequence, most people will have a general understanding of what it means when someone or something is labeled creative, although what precisely the label denotes tends to remain vague and underspecified – and varies from person to person, and from context to context. Hence, this is one of the challenges for researchers investigating creativity in language use: coming to terms with the fact that creativity is a word frequently used in a wide range of different contexts, often simply as a decorative emblem.
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