Abstract
Abstract This article presents the results of a large-scale interdisciplinary project aimed at a corroboration of the role of creativity in the way university undergraduates (N = 309) coin new complex words. Specifically, the tendency towards economy of expression, preferred by a speaker, and the tendency towards semantic transparency, preferred by a listener, were examined in the broader context of the creative potential of an individual, understood as divergent thinking abilities captured by the Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT). The results indicate that divergent thinking abilities, as operationalized by the TTCT scores, negatively correlate with the general tendency to coin new complex words in a more economical fashion. More specifically, the general tendency towards economy of expression correlates negatively with Elaboration, Creative Strengths, and potentially with Creativity. A more detailed analysis indicates that this is especially the case for the word-formation task, where open-ended responses were analyzed and a drawing served as stimulus material for word formation. These results are not only novel but also encouraging for future research into the role of psychological factors in the psycholinguistic process of word formation conceived as a creative act of a language user.
Highlights
This article presents the results of a large-scale interdisciplinary project aimed at a corroboration of the role of creativity in the way university undergraduates (N = 309) coin new complex words
The tendency towards economy of expression, preferred by a speaker, and the tendency towards semantic transparency, preferred by a listener, were examined in the broader context of the creative potential of an individual, understood as divergent thinking abilities captured by the Torrance test of creative thinking (TTCT)
This paper presents the results of a large-scale interdisciplinary project focused on the evaluation of the role of creativity, as a psychological factor, in the way university undergraduates coin new complex words as a psycholinguistic process
Summary
Many eminent historical figures – ‘creative geniuses’ (Simonton 2019a) – such as Shakespeare, Picasso, Beethoven, or Newton come to mind with their remarkable contributions These instantiations represent the socalled ‘Big C’ Creativity reserved for extraordinary products made by nonconventional people in their respective fields. Divergent thinking can be conceptualized as a “measure of ideation that fuels creative thinking” (Runco and Acar 2019: 244), and, in comparison to convergent thinking, it captures various directions of thoughts, which are necessary in situations where more than one correct answer exists Torrance based his notion of creative potential on Guilford’s theory (Guilford 1956, 1986; see ; Cramond et al 2005; Plucker et al 2019; Runco et al 2010b). Various types of the TTCT can be traced depending on the specific version (cf. Torrance 1966, 1974, 1987, 1990, 1998) and the form (figural vs. verbal form), we used the most recent official Slovak version (Jurčová and Szobiová 2008) to find out whether the creative potential of an individual, as captured by various TTCT scores, relates to word formation as an act of creativity by a language user
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