ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at spoken discourse in the light of the theoretical issues and descriptive approaches examined in the preceding chapters. The main part explores the extent to which examples of everyday spoken discourse display creative properties. Among the questions posed in this chapter are:
• Are there differences between creativity in written and spoken texts? • Can particular creative patterns of spoken language be identified? • Can a corpus of spoken language reveal features of creativity which other
sources of data cannot? • Is it reasonable to talk of the ‘art’ of speech and, if so, what kinds of frame-
works, both theoretical and descriptive, are best suited to its analysis?
