The article discusses the problem of productivity in culture and language in its positive (derivative) and negative (secondary) aspects. The author focuses on the role of derivative (secondary) mental and linguistic structures from the perspective of a cognitive approach. He analyses secondary functions, elements, systems, as well as the principles and mechanisms of their formation in the contexts of conceptual and language derivation and in terms of two main trends in language change: conceptual-linguistic (the structure and content change in the encyclopedic and linguistic knowledge) and formal-linguistic (new language units and expressions construction). The author argues the positive or negative effect of productivity regarding the nature of the associated processes of manipulation by primary verbal structures, taking into account the collective and individual aspects of these processes, as well as from the point of view of the primary and secondary interpretation of the world and knowledge of the world in language. As an example of the positive aspect of productivity the author considers creativity, the emergence of new meaning, the reproduction of any ideas in a new form and connects it with the construction of new knowledge about the world of the collective level or with re-structuring of the previously obtained knowledge. To the negative aspects the author attributes the processes of manipulation by verbal and non-verbal structures using illegal or not entirely legal means which are manifested in plagiarism, compilation of parts of the works of other authors, non-legitimate borrowings, kitsch in culture, science and language.