On the Concept of Language Creativity: Insights from Igbo

Abstract

This study investigates the evidence of language creativity observable in contextual and everyday use of the Igbo language. The thrust of this paper is in two folds. First, it discusses creativity as an artful use of language vital for generating meaningful but novel and sometimes, ungrammatical constructions in the language. Such constructions include words, phrases, and sentences such as jeÌriÌ jeÌriÌ â€˜walkabout’, ká»Ìrá»‹Ì ká»Ìrá»‹Ì â€˜talkative’, tiÌ€eÌ yaÌ„ ị̀chaÌ€kaÌ€ ‘deal with him’, nÌgaÌbaÌsá»‹Ì â€˜influential, wealthy’ amongst others. It is observed that these constructions may start off as part of an idiolect. Some of them however, infiltrate the main stream of language use and overtime, become standardized. Second, this paper discusses how some commonly used utterances resulting from linguistic creativity may violate Grice’s (1968) conversational maxims but remain meaningful. The data for this study are obtained from the speakers’ spontaneous language in everyday conversations both in spoken and written forms. The collected data are analysed using a descriptive approach.