Formulaicity and Creativity in Language and Literature
Kayman, Martin A.
Formulaicity and Creativity in Language and Literature - Taylor & Francis Routledge [Imprint] 2018 - 1 online resource (126 p.)
Free-to-read
Formulaicity is pervasive in both spoken and written language. Speakers use a huge amount of prefabricated language including collocations, idioms, fixed and semi-fixed expressions, and verbal creativity often involves combining established word sequences rather than inventing wholly new ones. In literature, formulaicity was long disparaged as the opposite of creativity, and a hallmark of 'genre fiction' of questionable aesthetic value, but a more recent approach sees all writing as intertextual - a tissue of citations and creative reworkings of other texts. The chapters in this book elucidate the nature of semi-fixed formulaic sequences; how the meaning of formulaic expressions can change over time; how readers interpret formulaic expressions in first and second languages; how modern and postmodern authors use traditional genres and tales to challenging effect; and how formulaic patterns involving particular words can underlie the texture and meanings of entire novels. Together, the contributions to this collection provide a convincing reassessment of the potential creativity of the formulaic in a variety of linguistic and literary contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of English Studies.
Open licence
eng
English language--Style.
Grammar, Comparative and general.
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
Literary style.
Analyse linguistique (Linguistique)
Anglais (Langue)--Stylistique.
Grammaire comparée et générale.
Style littéraire.
Biography, Literature and Literary studies
English language--Style
Grammar, Comparative and general
Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics.
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
Literary style
Literature & literary studies.
creativity formulaicity Language literature written language
Formulaicity and Creativity in Language and Literature - Taylor & Francis Routledge [Imprint] 2018 - 1 online resource (126 p.)
Free-to-read
Formulaicity is pervasive in both spoken and written language. Speakers use a huge amount of prefabricated language including collocations, idioms, fixed and semi-fixed expressions, and verbal creativity often involves combining established word sequences rather than inventing wholly new ones. In literature, formulaicity was long disparaged as the opposite of creativity, and a hallmark of 'genre fiction' of questionable aesthetic value, but a more recent approach sees all writing as intertextual - a tissue of citations and creative reworkings of other texts. The chapters in this book elucidate the nature of semi-fixed formulaic sequences; how the meaning of formulaic expressions can change over time; how readers interpret formulaic expressions in first and second languages; how modern and postmodern authors use traditional genres and tales to challenging effect; and how formulaic patterns involving particular words can underlie the texture and meanings of entire novels. Together, the contributions to this collection provide a convincing reassessment of the potential creativity of the formulaic in a variety of linguistic and literary contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of English Studies.
Open licence
eng
English language--Style.
Grammar, Comparative and general.
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
Literary style.
Analyse linguistique (Linguistique)
Anglais (Langue)--Stylistique.
Grammaire comparée et générale.
Style littéraire.
Biography, Literature and Literary studies
English language--Style
Grammar, Comparative and general
Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics.
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
Literary style
Literature & literary studies.
creativity formulaicity Language literature written language
