Creativity can be used by everyone and everywhere. It is not bound to apply only in one culture, generation, or specific fields. Creativity is mainly associated with imagination and innovation including originality and creative genius. It can take place through creative talents, different innovative ideas, procedures of doing things, and human mind thinking. For creativity to take place it needs to be freed and nurtured for it to be spontaneous and have no boundary limitations. Creativity is also present in society and can be experienced in different forms. Creativity can be owned which is a matter of the degree of an individual’s creativity. Creativity in the language is referred to as creative language as used in linguistics and seeks to understand the way people communicate with each other (Kaufman & Sternberg 2010). Organizations are also striving to ensure that they stay creative and encourage creativity to its stakeholders. Creativity in the language is can be assessed through three main lenses. These lenses strive to emphasize the notion that literary language has always been different from the language used on an everyday basis. These include the textual lens, the contextual lens, and lastly the critical lens. The textual lens focuses on the actual language used to distinguish poetic language from the ordinary day to day language. It mainly involves the use of creative languages like metaphors, similes, and metonymy. The second lens is the contextual lens which not only focuses on how language is used but also focuses on how the language is achieved. This lens focuses on the social context, cultural context, and the past use of language. This lens puts into consideration the setting of the conversation, the people involved, and the norms that guide the relationship of the people interacting. Lastly, the critical lens focuses on the use of language and the context of the language and how they interact. In this essay, the different functions of creativity in linguistics will be discussed with the focus being on the entertaining, engaging, creation of harmony, creation of discord, preserving, and challenging the status quo.
The creative use of language can be entertaining especially when listening to artists. Language can be used creatively in poems and construction of jokes that enable listeners or readers to be amused. How different creative people put together their language and distinguish it from the day to day use of language and at the same time cause enjoyment. For instance, a joke told in the daily mail illustrates the creative use of language as the comedian creatively uses language in an order that is amusing and socially accepted. The interaction of the creative linguistic and the context of wording brings out the entertaining use of words and language.
A duck walks into a post office and asks the man behind the counter: ‘Do you have any corn?’ The man answers politely: ‘No, we don’t have any corn here.’ The next day, the duck enters again and asks: ‘Do you have any corn?’ Annoyed, the man answers: ‘No! We don’t have any corn.’ This goes on for a couple of days until finally when the duck asks ‘Do you have any corn?’ the man gets so upset he yells: ‘NO! For the last time we don’t have any corn, and if you ask again I’ll nail your beak to the counter!’ The next day, the duck returns and asks: ‘Do you have any nails?’ The man answers: ‘No.’ then the duck asks: ‘Do you have any corn?'(Daily Mail 2014)
Creativity provides engagement as people can creatively share ideas and brainstorm on different topics as presented to them. This process entails the stimulation of the mind that enables the creative use of language to express and bring forth their thoughts. Artists can also engage their audiences through the use of creative language or linguistic visuals. The main idea of the artists can be presented by the use of various forms like spoken words, and poetry. Engagement can be enhanced when a group of people together decided to in unity to find solutions to a problem. These enable them to come up with individual unique innovative ideas that can be analyzed to provide a way out to the common problem (Holmes & Bres 2012).
Creativity can be used to bring harmony amongst society. This can be achieved by the use of creative ways to communicate with each other in a community by understanding the other party in a conversation. The creative use of language enables a speaker to assess the situation and the attitude of the listener which enables them to choose the words to say that suit the situation. The selectivity of appropriate words to use portrays linguist creativity on the part of the speaker that enables peaceful coexistence. When people are talked to in the correct and appropriate tones they are open to communicate efficiently and enhance understanding in a conversation (Richards 2010)). Creativity in language use is very useful as a communication element that allows conversations to be held peacefully in society.
Creativity is also linked to creating discord as people share different ideas and views. The conflict arises when one party is unable to accommodate the ideas and position of the other party. This is usually a result of the party’s unwillingness to compromise or give up on the conflict issues. Secondly, the inability to comprehend the other party’s interest and substitute the burning underlying issue can result in discord. The different uniqueness of the people involved makes them have different ideas and opinions on how to go about an issue, therefore, creating friction. Regardless of the simplicity or complexity of the issue, the parties are unable to creatively express themselves using language to make the other part understand their point of concern or the different ideas they have (Kaufman & Sternberg 2010).
Lastly, creativity has been linked with the status quo where people use language to preserve and challenge the status quo they belong to. The use of complex words and grammar has been associated with different cultures, educational backgrounds, and financial conditions of the speaker. Language can be used by people belonging in particular social class and culture to differentiate themselves from others. For instance, it is very easy to identify a person from England from another person for America. This is mainly because of the diction and the accent used by the England person in a conversation. Also, people who have studied up to high levels of education tend to use creative complex words when communicating just to be recognized as educated. Different cultures also have formed the creative languages that enable them to understand each other better and at the same time creatively out the others in their conversations. Creativity also allows people to challenge the status quo as people devise creative ways of navigating the set lines of language as owned by different status quos (Maybin & Swann 2007). People learn and practice how to speak creatively to indulge in conversations with different people from different status classes.
In conclusion creativity in the language is for everybody and can be used by anyone with cognitive abilities. People are encouraged to use their creativity to innovate and come up with language arrangements that can serve different purposes. As discussed creativity in language has a variety of functions that assist human beings to interact with language purposefully. As seen creativity assists in socialization by way of engagement and entertainment. Not only that harmony and peaceful coexistence can also be achieved which in the long run can reduce incidences of discord. Creativity is also used by people in different social brackets to identify themselves through their words and assist in the identification of different cultures. Creativity in language can be useful in communication and better understanding by the different parties in a conversation.
References
Daily Mail (2014) ‘The UK’s top jokes’, Mail Online [Online]. Available at
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-90990/The-UKs-jokes.html.
Holmes, J. and de Bres, J. (2012) ‘Ethnicity and humour in the workplace’, in Gee, J. P. and
Handford, M. (eds) Handbook of Discourse Analysis, London, Routledge, pp. 494–508.
Kaufman, J. C. and Sternberg, R. J. (eds) (2010) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, New
York, Cambridge University Press.
Maybin, J. and Swann, J. (2007) ‘Everyday creativity in language: textuality, contextuality, and
critique’, Applied Linguistics, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 497–517.
Richards, R. (2010) ‘Everyday creativity: process and way of life – four key issues’, in Kaufman,
- C. and Sternberg, R. J. (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity, New York, Cambridge University Press, pp. 189–215.