Coronavirus Neologisms in the English and Ukrainian Languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31548/philolog2021.01.045Abstract
Abstract. The article deals with the coronavirus neologisms in the English and Ukrainian languages which are now becoming widespread. English as a global language reflects the profound effect the outbreak of COVID-19 has had on the lives of people worldwide. Any living language, being a dynamic entity, adapts to changes occurring in the life and culture of its speakers. The coronavirus pandemic has caused the linguistic change and adoption of new phrases as a part of the emergency response to the disaster, such as coronacoma, morona, zoomping, covidient, Blursday etc., across the globe. Some of the words related to the coronovirus outbreak are not strictly neologisms, including the word “neologisms” itself, which dates back to the 19th century. The consequences of the coronavirus outbreak have attracted the attention of numerous scholars throughout the world who have dedicated their research work to the effects of Covid-19 on the language which they highlight from different perspectives. The paper employs a number of general scientific methods, such as the descriptive method, the method of analysis and synthesis, the method of linguistic observation, the method of systematic observation as well as the combination of inductive and deductive methods. The method of contrastive analysis is applied to reveal the unique and similar features of the English and Ukrainian languages. The data were collected from articles, сorpora, social media, and different websites. The drivers inducing changes in the vocabulary of a language are identified as a means of helping people to survive the disastrous times. The unprecedented rate of nigh ubiquitous and instantaneous communication via the internet and mobile communication devices at a time of the pandemic has facilitated the exponential growth of neologisms associated with COVID-19. The English and Ukrainian neologisms are coined in different ways preserving their unique means of word formation. Several functions encouraging the appearance and development of coronavirus coinages are analysed in the article.
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