Un hambre que da calambre. Creativity and extravagance in the context of a family of consecutive constructional idioms

Abstract

The fact that language is continually changing and that there is a constant flow of linguistic innovations is blatantly obvious. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the notion of E(nlarging/extending)-creativity in the context of Construction Grammar (Bergs 2019; Hoffmann 2020, 2022; Ivorra Ordines & López Meirama 2024; Mellado Blanco 2023; among others), in the sense of creating new communicative possibilities that are not already in the language. Against this background, I investigate the extravagant nature of a family of consecutive constructional idioms using data from the esTenTen18 corpus (Sketch Engine), with instances such as una sed que me bebería el entero lago ‘a thirst that could drink the entire lake’. After a constructionist description of the patterns under discussion, the aim of this paper is twofold. First, to elucidate the intersection of creativity and extravagance. Second, to explore the extravagant nature of such patterns through different indicators: orthotypographic markers and cognitive devices. Arguably, semi-schematic patterns with a pragmatic point constitute illustrative examples in the interface of syntax and pragmatics, and as such they can be insightful for our understanding of the trade-off between psychological-cognitive factors of creativity and socio-cognitive ones (such as the wish to be extravagant).

Keywords

• construction grammar
• consecutive constructional idioms
• innovation
• creativity
• extravagance