ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes existing research on creativity and the use of idioms and metaphor in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). It outlines the notion of norm-following and norm-developing creativity. The chapter discusses these concepts in relation to idiom and metaphor, paying particular attention to the synchronic-diachronic link of idiom and metaphor and to the process of re-metaphorization. It attempts to provide insights to the questions how idioms are varied and why they are used by ELF speakers. Relying primarily on examples from Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), the chapter provides an overview of different types of formal idiom variation, such as lexical substitution, syntactic and morphosyntactic variation. Finally, the range of interpersonal and ideational functions fulfilled by creative idioms and metaphors was illustrated, providing evidence that metaphorical creativity is part of ELF as situationally created by multilingual speakers.
