1.1 Questions to be addressed

In the discussion to Activity 1, I have intentionally raised a lot of questions and provided only tentative answers. At this stage, the important point to note is that linguistic creativity can be viewed in various ways. Later in the course we will look at three particular ‘lenses’ through which linguistic creativity can be explored: the textual, contextual and critical lenses. Each brings into focus different types and dimensions of linguistic creativity, and can be used simultaneously (or in succession) to view the same examples in different ways. With the help of these three lenses, I will consider the following questions:

How can linguistic creativity be identified?

What is it (definition)?

What are the important factors involved in its production and consumption?