CHIL - research profile
The research activities of the CHIL group are characterized by a joint focus on the fundamental cognitive ability of creativity. From a broad cognitive linguistic perspective, the unit inquires into the regularities that can be uncovered in different types of creative language use, ranging from lexical-semantic to morphological and syntactic creativity. By ‘creative language use’, we understand non-conventionalized utterances like neologisms, but also occasional modifications and variations of conventional expressions, which generally aim at a non-referential (expressive or stylistic) meaning effect. With this orientation, the research unit tries to cover one essential aspect of Cognitive Linguistics as a usage based model of language that has been largely underfranchised in the existing literature. Starting from the observation that conventional as well as non-conventional language use builds on the same cognitive construal operations (like metaphor, metonymy, figure/ground-constellations, etc.), the unit investigates, through a range of different methodologies, how these operations are used in non-prototypical, innovative ways in order to yield creativity effects.
As one of the most prominent forms of linguistic creativity, humor (in its broadest sense) is the focus of a first specific research program of the unit. Starting from the basic assumption that there is essentially a continuum in the use of cognitive mechanisms in different types of language use, the idea of an independent linguistic humor theory is rejected in favor of an integrated (cognitive) linguistic approach. This perspective essentially focuses on the relationship between marked and unmarked construal and its effects on processing and appreciation. The effects of markedness on cognitive processing are tested by means of experimental methods developed in psycholinguistics. Apart from the empirical description of different types of humorous utterances, this research also has a larger theoretical-linguistic aim. The study of instances of marked language use, like humor, prevents linguistic models from artificially restricting their data to language elements that are regarded as conventionalized ‘core’ material, and thus from offering an inaccurate account of the actual human potential of linguistic creativity.
A second domain of investigation that is central to the study of creative language use is the function of imagery (figurative language) in yielding expressivity effects. This component ties in with existing cognitive linguistic research into the role of metaphor, metonymy, integration, compression, etc. as prominent principles of conceptual and linguistic organization. Taking the place of the Lakovian dogma of universal experientialism are research questions that call for a renewed attention for the impact of the mechanisms mentioned above on the linguistic level. Apart from the relevance of grounding of conceptual structure in bodily experience and cultural patterns, the unit brings into focus again the discursive and stylistic functionality of figurative language. One of the ways to study this perspective is the analysis of the formation of new or modified imagery as language specific manifestations of a fundamental creative ability.
