Lexical and lexico-syntactic innovations: a research into creativity in spoken english discourse

Abstract

The purpose of the present study, which is mainly of a qualitative nature, is to give a cognitively-oriented account of lexical and lexico-syntactic creativity in the English language grounded in some influential descriptions made within the domain of cognitive Linguistics. Our interest is focused on the underlying conceptual mechanisms of meaning construction, specifically on the cognitive operations accounting for the processes of word formation and semantic extension. The descriptive and analytical tasks of this study will be based, primarily, on three cognitive mechanisms actively involved in linguistic innovation: mental spaces, radiality, and frames. The main assumption made at the beginning of this proposal is that lexical and lexico-syntactic creativity, as a dynamic communicative process, is not only a function of language use (as many studies in the field ascertain) but also a powerful mechanism of cognitive processing.