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Bilingual creativity in Saudi stand‐up comedy
Author(s) -
FALLATAH WAFAA
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12239
Subject(s) - creativity , comedy , variety (cybernetics) , linguistics , function (biology) , varieties of english , sociology , psychology , art , visual arts , computer science , social psychology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , evolutionary biology , biology
Stand‐up comedy is one of those art forms in which linguistic creativity can be seen in its most extravagant form, as stand‐up comedians mainly rely on their creative use of language to interact with their audience. This paper explores bilingual creativity in stand‐up comedy in Saudi English as an emerging variety. It investigates the form and function of bilingual creativity processes employed by Saudi comedians performing in English, and sets out to answer such questions as: What are the common forms of bilingual creativity in Saudi English stand‐up comedy and what functions do they serve; what cultural conceptualizations do these forms and functions evoke, and what are the implications of this study for researching bilingual creativity in world Englishes?