ABSTRACT
Recent calls for the (re)animation of scholarly discourse have brought the question of the place of linguistic creativity in academic writing to the fore. The present chapter poses this question with regard to the discipline of language studies. In particular it examines linguistic creativity on the lexical and phrasal levels employed by the same authors in two written academic genres that occupy opposite ends of the genre constraints continuum –replies/responses and research articles. This corpus design facilitates the identification of the exponents and functions of linguistic creativity and the impact of genre on the creative language choices. The two most frequent exponents of lexical and phrasal creativity in the present corpus are formality incongruities and idiom variants. In both genres these devices facilitate rapport with the reader strengthen the author’s arguments and underscore the author’s dexterity with language. In replies/responses they also weaken the opposing views and mitigate self-criticism. This multifunctionality of linguistic creativity makes it an invaluable resource for academic writers. An incorporation of these findings into EAP curricula would enhance students’ understanding of the role of linguistic creativity in academic genres and help them assess its appropriateness in their own writing.
