Volitional Variation: Humour and Formulae

Abstract

Chapter 1 suggested that in contrast to single word lexical items which have word structure, phrasal lexical items have phrase structure. For example, dog-eared is a compound adjective and therefore a word while a dog’s breakfast is a lexicalized phrase. Phrasal lexical items, as we saw in chapter 1, not only appear in formulaic genres but make an appearance in almost all text, written or oral. Like all lexical items, phrasal lexical items are coined at a particular point in time and may come to be lexi-calized when some use is found for them. It might be that they express a complex predicate such as, for example, make allowances for, or that they perform a useful social role, such as, for example, Make sure you … Unlike single word coinages, however, potential phrasal coinages occur almost every time someone constructs a new phrase or clause since any phrase which is uttered is potentially a new phrasal lexical item.2 Creativity in terms of the coinage of new phrasal lexical items is, therefore, hard to study. As Noam Chomsky has tirelessly pointed out, speakers are being creative every time they put a new phrase or sentence together. However, that creativity is not in itself intentional.KeywordsLexical ItemMental LexiconComplex PredicateStructural AmbiguityRecoverability ConditionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.