Inventive Linguistics

This book focuses on all aspects of “invention” in linguistic matters, be it historical, fictional, or in current English usage. Drawn from an interdisciplinary international conference gathering literary critics, linguists and language historians, the articles selected here reconsider the concept of “inventiveness” in dealing with a wide range of material (poetry, short story, novel, music, TV series and cartoon, etc.). From varied perspectives, the authors bring their expertise to question received ideas about language in linguistics and literature. They show us how language is (re)invented to (re)invent reality or fill in a social, political or grammatical gap. Through different but equally instructive routes, they sometimes come to similar conclusions. In a more metalinguistic perspective, some authors attempt to redefine linguistics as a historical discipline throwing light on its methods, lacunae or blind spots, paving the way for a potential reinvention. Hopefully this book has prepared the ground for such an “inventive linguistics” that would propose a new, truly “interdisciplinary” approach to language.