As the module title suggests, our starting point is language, but we will also be examining how

language relates to other modes of communication in creative materials. We will consider the
sociocultural contexts in which creativity emerges, as well as its political dimensions.
E302 is divided into three blocks, each taking a slightly different approach to language and
creativity. There are inevitably overlaps as many researchers in the field often draw on more than
one approach. Roughly speaking:
Block 1 explores and analyses creative texts, including multimodal texts (those mixing language
and other modes). The block draws mainly from linguistics, especially stylistics, and also includes
units on creative writing and translation studies. An applied case study in the final unit draws
together key threads in the block.
Block 2 focuses on narratives: how they are embedded in dynamic cultural practices, their
functions in peoples lives and their connections with identity. Block 2 is also interdisciplinary, with
different chapters using frameworks from sociolinguistics, linguistic ethnography, sociology,
creative writing, translation studies and multimodality studies.
Block 3 investigates how language creativity provides a resource for political activity, and
examines the politics of creative production, ownership and evaluation. The units draw on
approaches and analytic frameworks from stylistics, social semiotics, multimodality, aesthetics,
discourse studies and rhetoric.
TMA 2
You should write no more than 2500 words in total.

Question
The measure of whether or not something is creative [] is that it creates some kind of change
in the world.
Drawing on discussion of Jones ideas and research, how persuaded are you by his approach
and his claims about creativity?

Guidance notes
It is important that you engage critically with Joness reading in Unit 3, and dont forget that the
two audio clips of his interview in Units 1 and 2 are also relevant. You should consider Joness
approach, for example the research methods and evidence he draws upon, and the theories and
arguments he uses, as well as what other scholars in the module materials have said on similar
issues. Remember the question is not only about whether you agree with Joness position or not,
but about how well he constructs his case and about how persuasive the evidence he draws
upon is in supporting that case. To enhance your engagement, it is a good idea to make critical
notes while reading. This means that you should not simply take his perspective at face value but
reflect upon the strengths and limitations of the case he makes in the light of the other materials
within the module that you have studied. A specific activity, Critical evaluation, available on the
module website to help you with this.
A good answer will integrate summary and evaluation, and also make some comparative and
contrastive links with relevant concepts and positions from other theorists you have encountered
in Block 1, including the case study.

Here are some questions which will help crystallise your ideas and organise your thoughts
(although how you structure your assignment most effectively is up to you):

How does Jones position himself in relation to other contributors to the field?
What are the strengths and limitations, as he sees it, of the existing research and
literature?
How does he see his approach making up for some of these limitations?
Which ideas and research does he use to support his claims about creativity and how
convincing do you find these?

Much of the material in the first block of E302 is potentially relevant, depending on where you
see the commonalities and contrasts with Joness approach. In terms of how you go about
evaluating his ideas and claims, it is worth looking in some detail at the discussion of Elena
Seminos work in Unit 8. Note the questions in the activities, many of which are also pertinent to
an evaluation of Joness work. Note also the points made about Seminos strengths but also the
reservations and caveats expressed about the framework which Semino uses.

RODNEY JONES TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, Im Rodney Jones from City University of Hong Kong, Im a Professor of English and
Discourse Analysis and Im here to talk about linguistic and discursive creativity. Most of the
existing work on linguistic creativity has really focused on the surface of language, focused
on textual aspects of creativity, and so people had been looking at inventive uses of language
in literature and in everyday life, things like metaphor, things like humour, rhyming, puns,
and this sort of thing. And these are certainly examples of inventive uses of language but in
my view if you really want to answer the question what is linguistic creativity, we have to ask
what exactly are we creating?
What is the purpose of inventive use of language? Certainly we must be doing more than
simply creating language. So we might be creating some kind of reaction from another
person, we might be creating some kind of change in our relationship with the people that
were interacting with, we might even be creating something much larger, we might actually
be changing the world in some way. And so my view is that if were really going to be looking
at creativity we need to look at these broader aspects of creativity.
Also I think we also need to look at the way language is used in conjunction with other modes
when were being creative, so its very rare that people are simply using verbal language
when theyre communicating. Were also using gestures, if were communicating through
print or through the internet were probably using some kind of images, maybe music, this
sort of thing, and I think this is particularly important nowadays particularly when you look
at the kinds of texts that people are producing with digital technologies, that simply looking
at the linguistic aspect of this creativity often misses some of the rich multimodal creativity
thats going on.
Its possible to actually be creative in using language in the real world but not produce any
kind of literary or creative language. I think its also possible to produce literary and creative
language but not actually be very creative because one of the important things about
creativity is that its not just original or inventive, but its also appropriate to some task or
some kind of situation. And so I think its possible perhaps to be very poetic or to be very

clever in your use of language but not really produce the kind of effect that youre wanting to
produce.
I can think of an example of this from some research that I did some years ago on drug use
among Hong Kong adolescents and the kinds of strategies that the government used to
persuade young people not to take drugs, and one of the popular television commercials from
the government at that time contained a kind of slogan which was in Cantonese: a sang
ming mo take two. Sang ming means your life, so sang ming motake two means theres
no take two in life.
Now this is certainly a kind of inventive use of language, its a kind of a metaphorical use
where youre taking this phrase from the movie industry and youre applying it to a different
kind of domain, its also a kind of creative use of code mixing, mixing an English phrase into
the Cantonese language, and so theres a lot on the surface of this phrase that seems quite
creative, but if you actually look at the effect that it had on the young people that listened to
this phrase, you might think of it in a different way.
And so they interpreted it as this is actually quite a good reason to take drugs or to engage in
some kind of daring or unconventional behaviour because since you have no second chance
in life, since life has no take two, youve got to make the most of what you have and do the
most interesting and daring thing. And so I suppose in terms of doing research on language
and creativity, for me the most important thing is that we cant just look at the text, weve got
to look around the text to find out whats going on around the text, whats the context and
what are the people doing with the text, what are they trying to perform?
And finally, what is the actual effect of this text, does it actually accomplish what theyre
trying to accomplish? If were talking about the strategic use of language in order to sort of
get what we want to get or do what we want to do we can say well this is something thats
quite ordinary, this is something that we do all the time when were looking at the broader
context of creativity or the creative uses of language in the material world. We can see it not
as a question of deciding whether or not something is creative or whether or not somethings
not creative but think of it in degrees.
I suppose the measure of whether or not something is creative, for me, is that it creates
something, that it creates something more than simply a clever use of language, that it creates
some kind of change in the world, and it might be a small change or it might be a big change, but
something has to be create