Essay 95

Cook, G. (2006) ‘Why play with language?’, in Maybin, J. and Swann, J.
(eds) The art of English: everyday creativity, Basingstoke, Palgrave
Macmillan, pp. 37–45.
Summarise the main points of your chosen reading and evaluate, with reference
to other material in the module you have engaged with to date, the extent to
which it helps you understand how to identify creativity in everyday language.


Creativity for me begins with taking ideas which exist or do not and expanding on these thoughts in an interpretation giving it a new sense away from what it's prior use was. Yet it is Swann who indicates that 'creativity within the confines of language use refers to a speaker/listener's ability to produce or understand a number of sentences they have not previously encountered' (Swann, p12).

This essay will compose a strong evaluation of Guy Cook's 'Why play with language?' along with the ideas presented by Swann above. In the essay I will draw on the text in comparison to my understanding of creativity in everyday language and also with linguists who have given their own inputs on everyday creativity both arguing and agreeing with such claims by Guy Cook. 'Why play with language' acknowledges the wide range of inventiveness that the English language can use and what influences are behind such creativity. Channelling comments which bear a resonance of Darwinism, simply excelling other species in a single use of language, passing information to become the hunter instead of the hunted, and declaring that humans have used language in numerous forms, from powerful leadership, declaring facts and even producing new terms of the language on an everyday basis. This essay will provide distinct measures at how different language use makes this an occurrence.

The notion of the first act of the English language is believed to have been a crossing of information to another human. Looking at the quote 'There's a bison down by the lake' (Cook, p37), it is easy to clarify what is...