A word that is used commonly today in psychology and artificial intelligence is “connective thinking”—a term that bears different meanings according to who uses it and how it is used within a discipline. Is it a form of associative or analogical thinking, or is it part of a broader capacity of the brain?

As a linguist, I have always been fascinated by the semantic connections among words as used in phrases, which seem to suggest that there are commonalities of meaning structure within various domains of language. An example of this can be seen in collocations—sequences of words that typically co-occur more often than would be anticipated by random chance. These include phrases such as crystal clear, making the right choice, cosmetic surgery, and a clean bill of health, among many others. Whether such expressions are based on syntactic (making the right choice) or lexical (clear-cut) formation, the principle underlying them is a truly intriguing one—creating connective meanings via a combination of words that leads to new blended forms of thought.

There are many ingenious puzzles that play upon verbal connectivity. Lewis Carroll was one of the most creative makers of such puzzles, which include his brilliant doublet (or word-ladder) puzzle genre. This begins with two words and blank steps in between them.........

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