Constructionist approaches to creativity

Abstract

Humans are an incredibly creative species – our minds have evolved to a degree that has enabled us to think original thoughts and come up with novel solutions to a great number of problems. One domain of human cognition that has recently received considerable attention is linguistic creativity. The present contribution will take a closer look at how Construction Grammar can account for various types of verbal creativity. In addition to this, it will also explore the implications of creative utterances for Construction Grammar as a mental theory of language.

Cognitive approaches to linguistic creativity

“…With respect to the 5A model, the entrenched construc,onal network cons,tutes part of the affordances that a speaker can draw on during language produc,on. Any concrete uBerance that a speaker then produces is created in the working memory and this product is called a 'construct' (Cowan 2008;Diamond 2013;Hoffmann 2017Hoffmann , 2022a. Only in rare cases, does a construct instan,ate a single construc,on (e.g., when you produce a pre-fab gree,ng such as Good morning!…”

“…(6) Ron DeSan,s is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Hoffmann 2022a). The reply in (7) picks up on the meaning of (6) (Ron DeSan,s is claimed not to be very intelligent) and through divergent thinking moves along the construc,onal network from not brightest to its dimmest (which is a synonym for both meanings of not bright, i.e.…”

“…Over the past couple of years, several publica,ons have contributed new and interes,ng cogni,ve linguis,c findings on the topic (e.g., Bergs and the construc,onal network). This model will detail the role of construc,onal networks (Diessel 2019) in crea,ve acts and it will be argued that Conceptual Blending (Hampe and Schönefeld 2003;Hoffmann 2019;2022a;Turner 2018Turner , 2020 is the domain-general cogni,ve process that creates crea,ve (as well as non-crea,ve) constructs.…”