Learn the Rules like a Pro, so you can Break them like an Artist (Picasso): Linguistic Aberrancy from a Constructional Perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates linguistic creativity from a constructional perspective. Following a distinction between F-creativity (fixed creativity, like productivity) and E-creativity (extending creativity, creativity beyond rules), it discusses several possible origins for innovations in a given language: errors and mistakes, language contact, and the intentional manipulation of linguistic material in the form of snowcloning, coercion, and aberrancy. This paper shows that only one special form of aberrancy might be classified as `pure' E-creativity. Rather than enforcing the dichotomy between E-and F-creativity, all the other sources of linguistic innovations seem to form a cline between these two poles.