MacKenzie, Ian edt Kayman, Martin A. edt Kayman, Martin A. oth MacKenzie, Ian oth text xx Taylor & Francis 2018 monographic eng 1 online resource (126 p.) Formulaicity is pervasive in both spoken and written language. Speakers use a huge amount of prefabricated language including collocations, idioms, fixed and semi-fixed expressions, and verbal creativity often involves combining established word sequences rather than inventing wholly new ones. In literature, formulaicity was long disparaged as the opposite of creativity, and a hallmark of 'genre fiction' of questionable aesthetic value, but a more recent approach sees all writing as intertextual - a tissue of citations and creative reworkings of other texts. The chapters in this book elucidate the nature of semi-fixed formulaic sequences; how the meaning of formulaic expressions can change over time; how readers interpret formulaic expressions in first and second languages; how modern and postmodern authors use traditional genres and tales to challenging effect; and how formulaic patterns involving particular words can underlie the texture and meanings of entire novels. Together, the contributions to this collection provide a convincing reassessment of the potential creativity of the formulaic in a variety of linguistic and literary contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of English Studies. Free-to-read Unrestricted online access star All rights reserved http://oapen.org/content/about-rights English Literature & literary studies creativity formulaicity Language literature written language https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/35610 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/35610 Free-to-read All rights reserved oapen 210210 20260305123945.0 doab35610