Creativity and Continuity Perspectives on the Dynamics of Language Conventionalisation

"The creative aspects of language practices have long been neglected by traditional linguistics," Dorthe Duncker and Bettina Perregaard claim. All of the chapters in their new anthology explore and demonstrate how processes of creativity and continuity underlie language conventionalisation. Though conventionalisation is essential to any understanding of the foundation of interaction and language, thus far it has not been the subject of any substantial collective effort. New research presented here seeks to redress this. An introductory chapter critically reviews the theoretical assumptions and pitfalls of twentieth-century approaches to communication and conventionalisation. The successive chapters are by scholars from different theoretical backgrounds within language and literature. They study the processes of conventionalisation from the complementary perspectives of linguistic and literary research traditions and cover a diverse field of cognitive, social, and historical aspects of language. The target readership of the book is scholars and students of language and communication - including literacy and literary studies and philosophy of language - who are interested in foundational issues and their profound implications for empirical analysis.