This chapter builds the general theory of the UG–iconicity interface, which consists of two general principles, with the Functional Iconicity Complementation Hypothesis (FICH) defining when the interaction is activated, and the Uniform Structure Mapping Principle (USM), how this interaction is carried out. In general, if a functional void of UG prevents a semantic/conceptual relation from mapping to a structural relation properly and thus halts an otherwise well-formed process of clause-generation, iconicity is called in to help finish the task. Intricate interactions between UG and iconicity may happen under the regulation of the USM so that the solution remains UG-compliant (and therefore has a proper interpretation). The scarce literature on the UG–iconicity relation is reviewed to provide the context in which the interface theory in this book is positioned and evaluated. The specific theory of the UG–iconicity interface is also compared with familiar examples in biology for further validation.

Though Ireland was never properly a part of the Roman Empire, it was a part of the Roman frontier. The extent of exchange and interaction with Britain and the Continent justifies our consideration of Ireland in the context of Late Antiquity as early as the third century CE. Elva Johnston has noted that the fifth century has served as ‘a chronological boundary’ and, as a result, ‘early Irish historical scholarship is greatly invested in analyzing conversion, Christianization and changing religious affiliations’, rarely treating the earlier period. Johnston has challenged the tendency of Irish historians to view Ireland as isolated from the Roman world and has argued that it should be viewed in a comparative context and as a frontier of the Empire. She writes of Roman frontiers that ‘They are no longer viewed as lines on a map, as hard borders defended by large-scale fortifications … instead they are seen as zones of complex cultural, economic, and military interaction’. The influence and reception of Roman, Gallo-Roman, and Romano-British culture along Irish transmarine frontier zones is witnessed in the archaeological record and includes decoration, ornament, and, of greatest significance to the current study, literacy, ogham being the primary example.

It is clear now that Christianity and its literate culture arrived in Ireland at an early date, likely by way of Roman Britain. The Romans had arrived in what they would call the Roman province of Britannia as early as 55 or 54 BCE, as Julius Caesar reports in his Gallic Wars. However, the Roman presence would not endure until 43 CE when Roman emperor Claudius, in front of 200,000 soldiers, invaded the island from the south. The Romans would gradually take control of much of Britain over the coming decades. The Roman presence in Britain was naturally to spread to the near neighbours in Ireland.

The archaeological evidence shows that the Irish were involved in maritime trade with Romano-British and Spanish traders, and perhaps even traders from the Mediterranean world, as early as the later fourth or early fifth century CE. Burials in the Roman fashion, found scattered along the eastern coastal region, provide evidence that Romans may have resided in Ireland as early as the first or second century CE.

A synthetic approach to long-lasting theoretical debates and the necessary condition for implementing it are discussed with concrete examples, including the very theory of the UG–iconicity interface. The popular role models of linguistics, biology and physics, are shown with certain general properties which are argued to deserve attention in linguistic research and theorization.

Categorially obscure words of relations, sometimes accompanied by semantic obscurity too, characteristically occur between the connected constituents regardless of the specific word-order setting of a language. This chapter investigates two kinds of such connectors, the conjunctions and the linkers. It is argued that the functional void of UG responsible for the grammatical behaviors of connectors is that UG cannot project any lexical item without a categorial specification. If a lexical item does not acquire a category for some independent reason, its consequential lack of syntactic representation leads to unique grammatical behavior dependent on the specific semantic relation it encodes. In the case of conjunctions, the symmetric nature of ‘and’ and ‘or’, triggering linear iconicity while restricted by the isomorphic implementation of the USM, results in representing conjuncts on parallel planes of which one is the “default” due to computational cost. It is this simultaneous symmetry–asymmetry enforced by the UG-iconicity interface that explains a large set of apparently self-contradictory traits of coordination. Linkers from Mandarin Chinese, Chamorro and Cantonese are analyzed in a similar manner.

The SVCs have a cluster of grammatical traits not derivable exclusively from UG, some of which have been misrepresented/misunderstood in the UG literature. The first functional void of UG is proposed which limits the lexicalization of a semantic relation R to only those cases where R connects first-order entities. All the characteristic properties of SVCs result from this functional void collaborating with the proposed Serial Verb Parameter (SVP) in the theory of the UG–iconicity interface. It also explains a wide range of related cross-linguistic facts, from phrasal SVCs to compounds, the parametric variations between Chinese and Gbe languages in (dis)allowing ditransitive V1, why the resultative SVC acts in a particular set of ways different from other types and the subtle disparities between head-initial and head-final SVCs, as well as the full range of variations among Kwa languages in object- and verb-fronting. The relation between the linearization pattern of UG and the iconicity-induced word order of SVCs is shown to pattern with the “high” and “low” neural pathways underlying fear, with implications on the nature of redundancy in biologically based systems and suggestive of an evolutionary connection between these two linearization mechanisms in language.

The Hisperica famina (‘Western Orations’) (hereafter Hisperica) are a seventh-century collection of fascinating, Latin orations that constitute a school textbook on rhetoric and composition. Similar to several other extant ‘hisperic’ texts written in a unique form of Hiberno-Latin, they invoke neologism and archaic vocabulary, draw on Greek, Hebrew, and Celtic, and employ terms in unique ways. Their influence was widespread, and a number of insular compositions are believed indebted to the hisperic style they demonstrate. For example, Máeldub likely imparted knowledge of the Hisperica to Aldhelm while he was a student at Malmesbury, and their influence is evidenced in his De virginitate, Aenigmata, and epistle to Eahfrid. Due to their gratuitous artificiality, deliberate obscurity, extreme invective, and outlandish style an argument can be made that the Hisperica are evidence of the continuation of the so-called ‘third sophistic’ that developed in the late antique and early medieval west. Or, perhaps they could be placed alongside other hisperic texts in a ‘Celtic’ or ‘Insular’ sophistic in the seventh and eighth centuries. Second Sophistic rhetoric in the Latin ‘Silver Age’ tended towards heightened, superficial style, bombast, and strange vocabulary, including graecism and archaism, and later writers are sometimes identified as part of a third sophistic. Rather than evidence of a decline in literary and rhetorical style, the rhetoric of the second and third sophistic reveal the social and cultural values of the learned classes from which it emerged, and hisperic style reveals much about the stylistic values of the early medieval Irish. Aside from the exemplary studies discussed below, hisperic Latin has in large part escaped the notice of rhetorical studies.

The A-Text of the Hisperica likely dates to the mid-seventh century and is certainly the work of an Irish milieu. As a terminus post quem, Andy Orchard suggests the writings of Isidore, indicating composition in the first half of the seventh century at the earliest, and a terminus ante quem based on the writings of Aldhelm, who appears to imitate them in his fixed patterns of syntax, indicating the late seventh century. Michael Herren also argues that the Hisperica influenced the Lorica of Laidcen (d. 661 CE), providing further evidence for a late seventh-century date. As for the text's Irish provenance, P. Grosjean was the first to note the influence of Irish on some of the faminator's coinages, and most commentators now agree the text is an Irish production.

Since the objective of our research is to examine the influence of the creative potential of language speakers on their creative performance in the formation and interpretation of new/potential complex words, there are several fundamental methodological principles that have to be taken into consideration. First of all is the method of measuring the creative potential of language speakers and the methods of testing their creative performance Therefore, this chapter introduces the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, accounts for the basic characteristics of creativity indicators and subscores, and justifies its relevance to our research. Furthermore, it presents a word-formation test and a word-interpretation test and accounts for their objectives and principles of evaluation. A sample of respondents, comprising a group of secondary school students and a group of university students, is introduced. A method of evaluating the data is explained, based on the comparison of two cohorts with opposite scores. Finally, this chapter presents the hypotheses underlying our research.