Language creativity is a complex topic involving many different and mutually inter- twined aspects. In this paper we deal with lexical creativity in English and discuss several key issues relevant to it: the relationship between productivity and creativity, the concepts of ludicity and wordplay, the attention-seeking function of lexical creativity, and the importance of extra- linguistic factors in lexical creativity. To illustrate how these issues pertaining to lexical creativity are reflected in the actual process of forming creative coinages, we focus specifically on the at- tention-grabbing and the naming functions of lexical blending as one of the most creative and most playful word formation processes in English, using as an example the blend Barbenheimer, recently coined for a particular purpose of a double feature of the two different films premiering on the same date. We discuss the formal structure of this blend, its semantic features, as well as its iconicity and the degree of predictability exhibited in the way the names of two blockbusters were amalgamated to form a blend.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Silaški et al. (2024) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: