Linguistic potential of COVID-19 neologisms in the metaphoric language of socio-political discourse

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate the features of the vocabulary of COVID-19 in English, which is an international language of borrowings. The secondary objective is to obtain new data on the emergence of a new vocabulary during the global problem of the COVID-19 pandemic. The method of lexical semantics analysis was used; 77 lexical units within the framework of the socio-political discourse have been considered in the course of the discursive text analysis. The most relevant categories of neologisms associated with COVID-19 were identified, and their word-formation models were analyzed. The active borrowing of COVID-19 vocabulary began from the English language. Based on the changes in the lifestyle, daily routine, and statuses of citizens, five categories and four groups of neologisms have been identified. The results of this study can be used for further analysis of the vocabulary of the COVID-19 period as new lexical units constantly appear and require their consideration within the framework of the linguistic potential and vocabulary of the languages found in the world. The study is important for replenishing the theoretical and practical base in the field of lexicology (processes of neologization, lexical borrowings, semantic features of new lexical units and their functions), media linguistics, journalism, and sociology as it takes into account socio-political factors.

Introduction

The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has led to unprecedented threats to health and life, serious socio-economic consequences and problems, and also influenced the language and its structure. Innovations caused by social and political events are characteristic of any time, especially during wars, natural disasters, and so on. However, in the case of COVID-19, neologisms have markedly distinguished themselves by their global distribution (Saleh, 2021). In the context of overcoming the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global community assesses both the negative and the positive consequences of the pandemic in the spheres of politics, economy, and social life, which have led to changes in people’s lives, in particular, these have affected the change in communication patterns and the emergence of new lexemes associated with COVID-19 (Afanasyeva & Klimentieva, 2021).

The basis for the creation of neologisms, which have become a part of everyday communication, was medical terminology. This vocabulary was disseminated by the mass media, primarily the public political discourse associated with the pandemic (Katermina & Lipiridi, 2020; Alekseev et al., 2021).

It is worth highlighting several early factors in the emergence of the COVID-19 lexemes based on the social stratification structure of that day: socio-political influence (media, political connections and government support of citizens of different countries during the pandemic, political propaganda of the fight against the coronavirus, etc.); the formation of several social groups of people in any way related to the virus; the influence of borrowing neologisms from the English language; and slang that occurs during a certain period and relates to a specific issue (Afanasyeva & Klimentieva, 2021; Samigoullina, 2021a).

The relevance of the study is due to the increased interest in the study of the vocabulary of the language that has been observed in recent years. The relevance and contribution of the research have been increased through the establishment of interlingual links between the semantic features of the coronavirus lexeme in four languages (Russian, English, German, and Chinese). English is dominant while German, Chinese, and Russian are given to compare the lexemes semantically related to Covid-19 and coronavirus. The research focuses on the study of the translation of neologisms from the donor language (English) into other languages. In turn, the lexemes of COVID-19 are described as a kind of a group of neologisms that play the role of symbols with metaphorical connotations that allow addressing a specific social group in the context of socio-political discourse.

The purpose of the study is to consider the features of neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 from the perspective of comparing the sources of their occurrence, areas of application, and semantics through the example of the English language as well as in connection with the role of such neologisms in sociopolitical discourse. The secondary objective is to obtain new data on the emergence of a new vocabulary during the global problem of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research problem is focused on the nature of new words and expressions that have emerged since the COVID-19 crisis.

The practical significance of the research lies in the application of the research findings in teaching such academic disciplines as translation studies, linguistics, lexicology, lexicography, and cultural linguistics; in addition, the data obtained can be used in the study of the impact of global sources of influence on society, culture, language, and means of public communication.

Literature review

Linda Wood and Rolf Kroger have given their definition of political discourse, which is in line with the criteria of this study. They argue that discourse is not only a direct method of communicating information but also involves the consideration of language in terms of its relationship with the social sciences (Wood & Kroger, 2000).

The research relies on the study by Vincenzo Alfano and Salvatore Ercolano on evaluating the effectiveness of COVID-19 isolation policies (Alfano & Ercolano, 2020) to further delineate the scope of socio-political discourse. The researchers have identified two main types of policies during the pandemic: health policies aimed at strengthening the capacity of the healthcare system and policies aimed at reducing the likelihood of human infection (isolation, quarantine, and social distancing).

Research in the field of lexicology is gaining increasing popularity, which is associated with the intensified creation of neologisms during the periods of social change occurring over a long period of time; this is noted by numerous researchers in the field of linguistics, philology, and social sciences. According to researchers, the process of intensive neologization in a language takes place in the form of the formation of new groups of words within a common topic, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neologization processes generate new words. Neologisms help in creating the form of words and facilitate the transformation of their word forms. In a social and cultural context, neologism also emphasizes contemporary perspectives. Very often people come up with innovative words to explain or describe new ideas and things, but this is especially important when there is currently no suitable word to more accurately express our thoughts or experiences. Neologisms are focused not only on linguistics but also represent other areas of life. For example, a study was conducted that focused on the phenomenon of neologism to examine the creation of new words during the COVID-19 outbreak. The theoretical framework was based on the three components of neologism, that is, word formation, borrowing, and lexical deviation (Asif et al., 2021).

Samigoullina (2021a) studied word-building models of English neologisms associated with COVID-19. The researcher relied on the early study by Kemmer, which described word-building patterns in the English language (Kemmer, 2003). Kemmer distinguished between substitution blending and overlap blending, and Samigoullina considered these word-building models through the example of the COVID-19 vocabulary. In the study on blend neologisms, she points out that 63% of the lexemes studied were created by the substitution blending method. Samigoullina (2021a) also identified 11 groups of neologisms associated with COVID-19 characterizing each of them according to semantic features, functions, and connotations.

Research in the field of lexicology, namely, in the section on neologisms and their word-building models, was also carried out by Samylicheva and Gazda (2020), who analyzed the neologisms of the Russian and Czech languages as indicators of current sociocultural realities. Thus, they outlined the framework of social discourse based on the language of the media as the primary source of unique lexical units, which is an obvious similarity between their studies. The researchers focused on the degree of expressiveness and evaluability of the modern media, which leads to different levels of word formation. This study also considers the influence of the media on the formation of public consciousness, which is manifested in the creation of new lexemes, their assimilation, and their application. Samylicheva and Gazda (2020) argue that the vocabulary of COVID-19 is based on occasional word formation. However, this opinion can be disputed as it is most often believed that blending is the most common model used for the creation of vocabulary semantically related to Covid-19. This also correlates with the results of the study by Samigoullina (2021a, 2021b) and Kemmer (2003). Samylicheva and Gazda (2020) note that English borrowings are one of the main sources of new vocabulary in Russian, which is in line with the main idea of this study.

Other researchers tend to focus on the consequences of the political, economic, and social problems caused by the pandemic and quarantine, but they point to the linguistic potential of the emergence of lexemes associated with COVID-19. The German linguist Grzega considered this issue citing people’s statements on social networks in European countries (Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands). He points out that despite the general dissatisfaction with the policy of isolation, the vocabulary of citizens is increasingly replenished with neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 (Grzega, 2021a, 2021b)

According to Khalfan et al. (2020), COVID-19 neologisms are divided into two main categories: scientific terminology and pop culture neologisms found in The Oxford Dictionary / Urban Dictionary (Khalfan et al., 2020). It would be correct to partially agree with this opinion as during the pandemic, medical, and scientific terminology became an important part of the vocabulary of citizens, thereby transforming into new units (neologisms). However, in this study, the terms Covid-19, coronavirus, covid, and corona directly refer to the main sources of neologisms, and the lexical units themselves are divided in accordance with semantic categories that correlate with the statuses of people in the context of the pandemic.

A detailed description of all probable word-building models of COVID-19 neologisms, as well as their classification options, were provided by Afanasyeva and Klimentieva (2021). They analyzed the word-building models of COVID-19 lexemes and divided them into two large groups—traditional word-building methods and mixed ones. The findings by Afanasyeva and Klimentieva that compounding and blending are the most common word-building models used during the coronavirus period are in line with the results obtained by Samigoullina (2021b).

Problem statement

The study addresses several critical aspects of this issue:

A study of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the attitude of residents of various countries towards the country of origin of the disease in terms of linguistics and socio-political discourse.

Research on the borrowing of English neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 by other European languages (Grzega, 2021b).

Reinterpretation of concepts through the prism of the emergence of Covid-19 lexemes in the metaphoric language stemming from the socio-political discourse in the context of the pandemic.

Consideration of the statements of a number of politicians in connection with the spread of COVID-19 as examples of the use of COVID-19 vocabulary; dissemination of information about the coronavirus through the media contributing to an increase in the effect on the collective consciousness; and the emergence of new lexemes and lexical constructions.

A study of how the global situation contributes to the development of the language both at the local and the regional levels (Zuenko, 2020).

A study of the linguistic potential of the emergence of lexemes semantically related to COVID-19 as new elements of communication, which implies the use of new communication means. Identification of the most relevant categories of neologisms associated with COVID-19 as well as the analysis of their word-building models.

Method and materials

Research design

The study is based on two methods:

1. Lexical semantics method. The semantic features of the group of lexemes under study, namely the lexemes related to Covid-19, were analyzed for the period of 2019-2021. The lexical semantics approach allowed us to consider modifications of the lexeme denoting COVID-19 as an example of a global neologism that has been introduced in almost all world languages during the pandemic (Kupolati et al., 2021; Samigoullina, 2021b).

2. A method of discursive textual analysis, which involves a quantitative and qualitative study of the presence and role of neologisms associated with Covid-19, within the framework of the socio-political discourse of the period of 2019-2021. The research is focused on structuring the semantic features of lexemes in terms of their pragmatics. These groups of semantically related lexemes are considered new means of communication in the context of the development of a specific situation in the world (Afanasyeva & Klimentieva, 2021; Samylicheva & Gazda, 2020).

The chosen methods correspond to the context of these studies. The lexical semantics method was deemed appropriate for the study, as it allowed the collection of the necessary information among the targeted various components of society. The study of Kupolati et al. (2021) presents a detailed analysis of the morphological processes used in the creation of lexical innovations of COVID-19 lexemes among Northeast Southwest speakers. He considers them in two broad sections: lexico-semantic and morphosyntactic levels. In the study Samylicheva and Gazda (2020), to determine the word-formation structure of neologisms, discursive analysis was used in conjunction with structural-semantic analysis and pragmatic analysis to identify the specifics of the functioning of neologisms in media discourse. This methodology was also used in older studies (Corman et al., 2002; Goddard, 2002), which indicates the vastness of the analyzed period. This allows us to talk about certain trends in research and their methodology. They identify discursively important words, which are then used to structure and index the importance of the words. In this way, the proposed methods confirm their validity and reliability of the results.

Data collection

The study considers 77 lexemes and neologisms semantically related to COVID-19. These were selected based on the analysis of the literature sources published in 2019-2021, a number of academic studies listed above and used in the study as well as four regularly updated electronic online dictionaries Urban Dictionary (2021) and Trainchinese (2021). The lexemes have been extracted from the texts of exclusively socio-political discourse.

To reinforce the discursive textual analysis, it was decided to use statements made by a number of leading world politicians, which ranked first on social networks and were most often quoted by electronic media. Among the most common quotes for the period of 2019–2021, seven statements by politicians such as Michael Richard Pence, Joe Biden, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping were selected. This sample includes influential politicians in America, Europe, and Asia as well as the largest countries in the world in terms of population, area, and economic influence. The quotes were randomly selected within the scope of the research. There was a limit on the period of time the statements were made and new lexemes were introduced in Internet dictionaries and electronic sources: from the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2019 to July 2021.

The quotes make it possible to assess the influence of socio-political discourse on the linguistic potential of four languages (English, German, Chinese, and Russian). The politicians’ statements played a dual role, which is considered within the framework of discursive analysis: They became the source of new lexemes; they are also one of the important areas of application of the new vocabulary semantically related to Covid-19.

Research limitation

The study is not strictly quantitative; it does not rely on accurate statistical data of the frequency analysis of lexemes and does not consider the whole range of lexemes associated with COVID-19. The root lexemes and derived neologisms were selected for the purpose of a limited study, the results of which must be refined by rigorous frequency analysis and other quantitative research methods.

Results

The roots of the pandemic and the neologism lexemes related to COVID-19

China is the country where the first case of COVID-19 was detected. At the same time, the PRC cannot be considered the direct source of the disease name itself and the COVID lexeme (Baloch et al., 2020). For the first time, a coronavirus infection was recorded in Europe; therefore, most neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 were coined in English and other languages borrowed these lexical units. Thus, English can be considered the donor language of lexemes associated with COVID-19.

The interim name of the virus was 2019-nCoV, which means pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus (Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia). The unconditional influence of socio-political discourse on the emergence of any news or event should be mentioned in this context. The medical term was too difficult to remember and pronounce and the public demanded a concise and convenient term. On 11 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO, 2019) announced COVID-19 as the name of the new disease, which is an abbreviation for coronavirus disease 2019.

This can also be considered a coinage as it is the first letters of the words that are directly involved in the abbreviation rather than the roots. Coinage is the creation of a completely new word or expression, as in the case of COVID-19—it was considered by lexicographers as a possible lexeme but soon added as a neologism to the vocabulary of the English language. An interesting fact is that there is a tendency for terms to be shortened (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

The process of shortening the name of the virus.

Despite the fact that China is considered a hotbed of the pandemic, the largest number of neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 was found in the vocabulary of the English language. It is the source of approximately 80%–85% of new vocabulary that was introduced as neologisms not only in English-speaking countries but also in the countries that widely use English or are borrowers of neologisms from the English language (Urban Dictionary, 2021). Terms that were used in the 19th century have passed into modern use from the English language, especially in connection with recent epidemics and crises, new words, abbreviations, acronyms, and phrases have appeared. Over the past three decades, advances in technology and communications have revolutionized the English language system extensively. In addition, with the development of social and natural sciences in such areas like television, medical and research, politics, radio, and the Internet English is a borrowing from other languages to use the words for new concepts or various abstract phenomena. A turning point has occurred in the context of modernity, and now English dictates the main trends in the formation of neologisms. First of all, at present, with the development of various inventions and innovations, a significant number of new words in English on the topic of coronavirus (Behera & Mishra, 2013). These new words are related to the COVID-19 epidemic and have become more widespread around the world. The simplest way to form this vocabulary group can be built on the basis of the English language. Studying this process can be a constructive way to prepare for work, and not just explore how the English language develops.

Socio-political discourse influence on public consciousness: Linguistic potential of Covid-19 neologisms in the metaphoric language

In modern society, the media take on an important role in disseminating information and focusing on the impressionable and absentminded reader. During the pandemic, there was a tendency for the media to be politicized. The address of the heads of state to citizens in a time of difficulties, public discussions of politicians from different countries on the fight against coronavirus, statements by the ministers of health on the measures taken, interviews with certified anti-covid doctors, cooperation of states during the pandemic can become not only a sensation in the hands of journalists but also a vivid example of the work of sources disseminating new medical terms among the masses of people. These terms are introduced and modified, which leads to the emergence of neologisms (Katermina & Lipiridi, 2020).

Public service announcements designed to warn against the danger of the virus and provide psychological support during the quarantine period play a great role. Moreover, public service announcements can be considered the primary source of dissemination of medical terms. Today the terms pandemic, acute respiratory disease, vaccination, PCR tests, and observation are commonly used.

China is a prime example of a state where the fight against the disease is becoming political. This is manifested in Chinese slogans found in public service announcements, which not only cheer up city dwellers but also create a certain mood or tendency to promote policies (ideology), attitudes, and a set of citizen behavior rules.

The capital of Hubei Province, Wuhan, has become a symbol of the global COVID-19 pandemic as it is the place where the first case of severe pneumonia was discovered. But the Chinese authorities strongly supported the inhabitants of the capital and the slogans “Wuhan, do not give up!” soon began to appear on the Internet (武汉加油!) (taken from posters and photos posted online).

When the outbreak in Wuhan was gaining momentum, healthcare providers faced the challenge of communicating with patients. Dialects in certain regions of China are very different from each other and Central Mandarin. It was decided to compile a dictionary and a reference book of the Wuhan dialect on the topic of the virus to facilitate communication between doctors and patients. This information once again makes it clear that it is impossible to borrow COVID-19 terms from the Chinese language.

As noted earlier, Chinese cannot be recognized as a donor language of COVID-19 neologisms for several reasons. First, this is the incompatibility of the writing systems: the Chinese language is based on the ideographic principle of writing while the languages of the peoples of America and Europe are predominantly phonetic. In addition, despite the fact that, for example, Russia closely borders on China in the east and they are known for their regional cooperation, no lexical units of the PRC vocabulary have been borrowed by the Russian language due to the complete inconsistency of the structure of both languages (Zuenko, 2020). Moreover, even Chinese borrowed units from English are phonetically distorted quite strongly. But for a phonetic, lexical, and morphological comparison of the names of the disease COVID-19 in different languages, Xi Jinping’s quote can be cited: “在过去8个多月时间里，我们党团结带领全国各族人民，进行了一场惊心动魄的抗疫大战，经受了一场艰苦卓绝的历史大考，付出巨大努力，取得抗击新新冠肺炎情斗争重大战略成果，创造了人类同疾病斗争史上又一个英勇壮举»(习近平在全国抗击新冠肺炎疫情表彰大会上的讲话金句, 2020):

Over the past eight months, our Party has united and led the people of all nationalities to fight a thrilling battle against the epidemic, to endure a gruelling historical test, and to make tremendous efforts to achieve considerable strategic results in the fight against the New Coronary Pneumonia epidemic, which is another heroic feat in the history of mankind’s struggle against the disease.

The President of the PRC uses the name 新冠肺炎[xînguānfèiyán], which translates as an epidemic of coronary or ischemic pneumonia, where新冠 is a new crown, 肺炎[fèiyán]—pneumonia. It should be noted that the online English-Russian Dictionary Trainchinese and the Russian-Chinese dictionary BRCD literally translate the term coronavirus as 冠状病毒[Guānzhuàngbìngdú] or a coronavirus infection (冠状病毒感染[Guānzhuàngbìngdúgǎnrǎn], where 感染[gǎnrǎn] is infection) (Online dictionary Trainchinese; online Russian-Chinese Dictionary BCRD).

The use of the neologisms COVID-19, coronavirus, and covid in Russian journalism in the context of political discourse as the metaphors of war occurs quite often (Kozlovskaya, 2020). For example,

Covid-19 is attacking the planet: in Ecuador, people are dying on the streets. (Vesti UA, 6 May 2020)

Coronavirus: war against humanity. (Komsomol Truth, 5 March 2020)

Covid attack from space. In the battle against the new coronavirus, new technologies are of particular importance. (Daily News, 17 October 2020)

Heads of state are often direct participants in the introduction of neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 into socio-political discourse.

The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin comments on the current situation making references to the historical origins of his country. At the same time, he uses a word combination that has become a specific neologism or a characteristic metaphorical phrase of the politician. Soon the phrase stuck in the memory of many people and became a quote: “Our country has gone through serious trials more than once: both the Pechenegs and the Polovtsians invaded us but Russia did quite well. We will defeat this coronavirus bug too” (Interfax, 2020).

“Coronavirus bug” is a metaphorical phrase that can be considered a neologism.

The Vice President of the United States (2017-2020) Michael Richard Pence also used the term coronavirus in his vocabulary from 2017 to 2020 when he commented on his position on vaccinating the American people: “Karen and I were more than happy to step forward before this week was out to take this safe and effective coronavirus vaccine that we have secured and produced for the American people” (BBC, 2020).

The President of the United States Joe Biden refers to COVID: “As I’ve told you before, I carry a card in my pocket with the number of Americans who have died from COVID to date” (White House, 2021).

An interesting fact about the use of the Russian neologisms (covid, coronavirus, and corona) or the English ones (coronavirus and covid) is that the lexeme can be both a noun and an adjective and change the ending of a word according to gender. For example, the latter is clearly observed in Russian. The analysis of the Russian vocabulary replenishment with new lexemes showed that masculine slang nouns with zero endings, which are most often used by Internet users, have been introduced. For example, a coroned person or a person who has caught coronavirus. In the Urban dictionary, the words coronic (a person who has contracted coronavirus) or coronaed (when someone gets infected with COVID-19) can be found.

Rethinking values and changing lifestyles. Formation of groups and categories of Covid-19 neologisms based on semantic features within the framework of socio-political discourse

The neologisms associated with COVID-19 received the most widespread distribution in everyday vocabulary due to the change in the spheres of communication during the pandemic, which implied the emergence of new means of communication to meet the new structure of interpersonal contacts.

This section considers the concept of society as a whole and the relationship between people involving communication means that are constantly changing and supplemented with new lexical units.

Socio-political discourse implies a certain tendency toward the interaction of social strata with each other, which results in the formation of new verbal means. To trigger the processes of vocabulary development and adaptation, society needs a kind of external stimulus. The global stimulus in the form of social upheaval was the period from 2019 to 2021.

Influenced by the media, the positions of public leaders and the rules that were established with the aim of combating the coronavirus disease, as well as based on the global mass psychological mood and the situation in the international arena, neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 were divided in accordance with the five main statuses of people in the period of the pandemic (Figure 2):

Figure 2.

Social statuses of people during the pandemic (Source: author’s elaboration).

1. The political elite during the pandemic (authorities)–being a mouthpiece and authority for people in such a difficult period.

2. People during the quarantine and pandemic–the population of the entire planet, which was shocked and frightened.

3. Victims of COVID-19 (the sick)–those who most of all feared for their lives and worried.

4. Representatives of the media–those who disseminated information to the categories mentioned above.

5. The medical care providers and personnel.

Therefore, each of these groups of statuses has its own characteristic neologisms associated with COVID-19. Thus, new lexemes are also divided into 4 groups:

1. Lexemes characterizing the sphere of politics.

2. Lexemes characterizing new living conditions.

3. Lexemes characterizing the behavior and positions of people during the pandemic.

4. Lexemes describes fake information about the coronavirus disease.

Each of these groups has its own number of COVID-19 neologisms, which are characterized by their own connotations, functions, semantics, and area of application. The main criterion for distinguishing between these categories is the subject and scope of their use (political and social discourse, the sphere of medical communication, etc.). Thus, the classifications presented earlier are interrelated and show groups of speakers and subject areas, respectively.

Each status can be adequately correlated with a group of neologisms: authorities—the sphere of politics; people and pandemic—new living conditions; the media—false information about COVID-19; and the sick—the position of citizens.

The use of a particular lexeme in everyday, public or political communication automatically defines the speaker as a representative of one of the above statuses of people within the context of the pandemic and also characterizes their personal discourse in relation to the political aspects of the pandemic.

It should be noted that many words have been created based on word-building models—these are new but holistic lexical units; however, there are also neologisms, which include metaphorical phrases.

Power—the sphere of politics

The political discourse vocabulary describes the political elite or certain political phenomena during the pandemic. This refers not only to politicians who encourage the fight against coronavirus but also to the medical staff who are directly involved in the fight against COVID-19. It is these two social categories that have become the leaders in the use and formation of these neologisms.

The first group of lexemes includes such words as diplocovimacy, coronavirus harassment, coronomics, covexit, corona warriors, and Covid-19 committee. They were created by the media and politicians to describe what is happening around this topic. Some of them may have a sarcastic or negative connotation. Let us consider each of them in more detail describing the semantics, functions, and examples of use in the course of communication.

Diplocovimacy/dɪpləʊkəʊviməsi/(covid diplomacy) is a type of policy that was formed during the pandemic. This policy is based on the importance of combating COVID-19 as a priority issue. At the same time, there is a focus on the fact that other social problems (the struggle for civil rights, the problem of discrimination, racism, etc.) fade into insignificance. For example, “During the pandemic, the authorities of our country stick to diplocovimacy, but forget the importance of addressing issues of minority rights.” The Urban Dictionary also provides another good example: “The covid-19 outbreak causes diplocovimacy as a windfall golden opportunity to release the Government of the French Republic from the yellow vests movement.” The semantics of the word “diplomacy” in this context is rethought and indicates a focus on one problem that diplomacy solves.

Coronavirus harassment/corohara (persecution of people infected with the coronavirus) is a social phenomenon in the form of discrimination against people who have had COVID-19 and returned home from the hospital; bullying people who cough in public. This neologism can also be correlated with a specific manifestation of racism toward Asians, which intensified during the pandemic as these people are associated with China as the source of the disease. Today this problem has become an international issue. For example, “Why did you stop communicating with Xiao Wan? It’s very uncivil of you to show corohara at such a difficult time!” (BBC, 2020). In its semantics, this phrase has a direct, and not rethought, meaning, since the meaning of the lexeme “harassment” is clear.

Coronomics is a position of denial of the coronavirus pandemic when the economic status of a person is placed above health or preservation of life. For example, “Coronomics dictate that we sacrifice untold lives for the sake of propping up the economy” (Urban Dictionary, 2021). Linguistic semantics is consonant with the first example.

Corona warriors (people fighting against the virus) is a metaphorical phrase used to refer to medical workers or professionals who work to combat and overcome the coronavirus pandemic. For example, “These certified doctors have already saved the lives of many people with coronavirus, so we can call them corona warriors (OpenGrowth).” “Corona warriors” definitely has a reimagined meaning as it’s a metaphor. Its meaning endows medical workers with strength and courage, which also has an emotive effect.

The COVID-19 committee is a committee of certified doctors and employees involved in the fight against coronavirus and advocating for fair and universal access to vaccines. For example, “The Covid-19 committee was formed to spread the information about the importance of vaccination (UpToDate).” With the help of this neologism, a certain group of people is called a committee, although in fact they are not.

The most common of this group is the use of “corona warriors” and “coronomics.” They were found in the media 3505 and 4677 times.

New living conditions

Neologisms and lexemes characterizing new living conditions. They are based on social discourse and the opinion of citizens about the coronavirus reality that they had to face. These words give an idea of the semantics of new concepts that arose during the COVID-19 period as a result of the life and communication of people in the context of the pandemic.

The second group of neologisms includes such words as covid-19 effect, covismart, covidsation, covidexcuses, quarantime, corona time, coronapanic, pandemishegoss, covid-grade, coronacation, coronapocalypse, coronageddon, coronaverse, covidivorse, covidadees, lockdowner, maskulinity, covid-38. They are close to colloquial speech and slang, which shows their main role—overcoming the pandemic and negative attitudes in society. Let us consider each of them in detail.

COVID-19 effect is the name of the pandemic outbreak containing the semantics of describing most people who do not understand the importance and complexity of the circumstances and do not adhere to the rules of self-isolation and quarantine. For example, “Many people do not want to adhere to the rules of self-isolation, moreover, they claim that the pandemic will end soon – this is the so-called Covid-19 effect” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covismart (a careful attitude) is the concept of following all public health and social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. For example, “In these covid-19 times, we all need to be covismart by maintaining a good hygiene and observing social distancing” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covidsation (covid talk, covid ethics) is a conversation that begins with a discussion of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a specific rule of etiquette that has been modified or supplemented due to a change in the situation: People used to start a conversation talking about the weather or personal life while today it begins with the COVID-19 discussion. For example, “I ran into an old acquaintance unexpectedly yesterday, but didn’t find out anything interesting about her life because we had a covidsation.” (Urban Dictionary, 2021)

Covid excuse is a concept of human behavior when a person tries to justify their actions or defend themselves using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse (Urban Dictionary, 2021). For example, “I’m sick of hearing your covid excuses because it doesn’t make any sense!”

Quarantime (the period of quarantine) or coronatime (the period of the epidemic) describe pastime in the conditions of the quarantine and self-isolation. For example, “I don’t even remember what day of the week it is. It’s a real quarantime” (Urban Dictionary, 2021). The word combination corona time is used much more often; it means not only the time of quarantine but also characterizes the so-called “era of coronavirus.”

Coronapanic (panic related to covid) is defined by the Urban Dictionary as a state of mind during the pandemic when people learn shocking news about the spread of the virus around the world, the number of cases, and the quarantine conditions imposed by the authorities of each country. For example, “We should not spread this coronapanic fear among the people, otherwise false fears will arise among the people.”

Pandemishegoss (pandemic madness) is the concept of insanity or disorder that occur in the society during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, “Oh, this coronavirus! Such a pandemishegoss!” (Urban Dictionary, 2021)

Covid-grade describes a situation where a group of students is quarantined and switches to distance learning due to the fact that one of the students has contracted the virus. For example, “Now we have to stay at home because we have a covid-grade” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronacation describes a situation where a person is isolated and is sick, and also works remotely (or not), but still gets paid. For example, “I really love this coronacation, even though my head hurts every day and my temperature doesn’t go down” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronapocalypse is the position and opinion of some people on the fact that Covid-19 is the beginning of the apocalypse, which can lead to the extinction of mankind. For example, “My mother does not believe that the coronavirus situation will improve. She has read somewhere about the concept of the coronapocalypseand she believes in it” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronageddon is a concept describing the inevitable end of humanity with massive social, financial or political devastation due to global hysteria and panic caused by the coronavirus pandemic (Urban Dictionary, 2021). For example, “Have you heard the latest news? Coronageddon is about to destroy us!”

Coronaverse is a concept describing humanity or international society in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, “The attitude towards the world in our Coronaverse will no longer be the same” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covidivorse (divorce in the period of COVID-19) is a concept describing conflicts between married couples during the pandemic and quarantine when they spend too much time together, which leads to hostility, disagreements, and disputes. For example, “I didn’t even know that Steve would watch movies every day and not help me with cleaning! It’s his own fault because that’s what led to our Covidivorse” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covidadees is depression, lack of motivation or fear of being lonely during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. For example, “She may have a case of the covidadees” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Lockdowner (lockdown period) is a period of the quarantine and self-isolation when a person loses motivation and gets depressed due to the inability to communicate with the outside world. For example, “What a setback! Our company received a four-month lockdowner due to 10 people falling ill on the covid-19” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Maskulinity is the behavior and attributes of people who wear masks during the quarantine. For example, “The people who would not wear masks during the Covid-19 pandemic showed no signs of masculinity” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covid-38 is a term that describes the phenomenon of getting sick with Covid-19 for the second time. In this case, 19 doubles and thus emphasizes the fact that the disease has returned. For example, “I am in hospital again with a bad cough and fever. This is alreadyCovid-38for this year” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

“Quarantime” and “corona time” turned out to be the most accepted by society. They are found in social networks and the media more often than other neologisms.

Position of citizens

Neologisms related to this group are characterized by the names of people who, to one degree or another, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These include sick people; victims of the pandemic (people who have been exposed to the virus and have been discriminated against); people who have their own opinion about the pandemic; a certain group of people defined by other people during the pandemic; the behavior of some people during the Covid-19 period.

This group includes covidchondriac, coronaed, coronic, antibuddy, coronafag, covirt spreader, covidient, covidiot, coronaskeptics, coronadissident, coronagrass.

Covidchondriac (covid hypochondriac) is a person who is abnormally worried about being COVID-19 positive. For example, “Diana became a real covidchondriac after finding out she tested positive! She’s always complaining that she’s going to die” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronaed and coronic have similar meanings. They describe people who have contracted Covid-19.

Coronic is used as a noun. For example, “Is Karen coming in today? Unfortunately not–she’s coronic, I think she got coroned last week on the way to work” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronaed is most often used in the meaning of “getting infected.” For example, “Vicky can’t come to work because she got coronaed” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Antibuddy (a friend with antibodies; a group of people with antibodies) can be used as a characteristic of one person who is immune to Covid-19 or a group of people (friends) who have been exposed to the virus and now can spend time together. For example, “Why are these three together all the time and shy away from communicating with others? Surely they areantibuddy” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronafag is a person who is trying to spread the false information that coronavirus is the most terrible disease in the world from which every infected person can die. For example, “Many representatives of large companies are becoming coronafags, although we can see an improving trend in the pandemic situation” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Сovirt spreader (a person who spreads Covid-19) is a carrier of the disease, who has no symptoms, but can infect other people. For example, “His parents, wife and children fell ill on the Covid-19 and he thought he was healthy and immune, but unfortunately, the test showed that he was covirt spreader meaning he was a passive carrier of the virus” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covidient and covidiot are antonyms.

Covidient is a person who seriously takes the rules of dealing with the pandemic, adheres to social distancing and self-isolation, wears a mask, etc. For example, “My mother is a real covidient. She washes her hands every 15 minutes and wears a mask even in the flat” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covidiot is a person who ignores all rules of the pandemic and also neglects warnings related to public health and safety. Covidiot is also used to describe a person who is overly irrational or panicky. For example, this person buys a lot of groceries or toilet paper, like on the day of last judgment, or refuses to communicate with people. For example, “Gerry’s behaviour really worries me, he’s acting like a covidiot” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronasсeptic is a person who doubts the veracity of information about the spread or danger of the COVID-19 virus; this person is skeptical about any warnings and rules to combat COVID-19. For example, “Our boss is showing all the symptoms of a coronasceptic. Also, he doesn’t want to close the office for quarantine” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronadissident is a person who completely disagrees with generally accepted information about COVID-19. For example, “We will not support the positions of the corona dissidents. Their ideas seem very unrealistic” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronagrass is a person who informs the authorities that someone is violating the rules of quarantine and isolation. For example, “These coronagrasses keep us from going out to buy groceries in peace” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Fake information

The lexemes and neologisms of the group arose as a result of the dissemination of false information about the Covid-19 pandemic by the media. Thus, they were created to put an end to fake news in the media.

This group includes infodemic, coronawashing, twindemic, covid-(19 + X), coronaspiracy theory, Covid-9999.

Infodemic (information about the pandemic) is a neologism that is most often used to describe disinformation that is spread through social networks or rather an overabundance of certain information. For example, “I am so sick and tired of this infodemic social media about the coronavirus” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronawashing (brainwashing) describes a situation where manufacturers present their long-standing product and advertise it as a cure for the coronavirus. For example, “Have you seen the commercials for this product? It’s been on the market for five years and now they’re talking about its miraculous properties against the coronavirus. Here’s an example of Coronawashing.”

Сovid-(19 + X) is another pathogen that can destroy humanity in X years, which is calculated by astrologers, numerologists, and epidemiologists (Urban dictionary). For example, “This study presents the characteristics of a new Сovid-(19 + X) that could affect humanity in a hundred years’ time” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Coronaspiracy theory is a false conspiracy theory based on the accusations of one person, country or certain technologies of the coronavirus crisis. For example, “Bill Gates is now the leading target of coronaspiracy theories” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Covid-9999 is a metaphorical distortion of the term Covid-19, which conveys the idea that the pandemic will never end but turn into Covid-9999. For example, “The COVID-19 pandemic will never go away because it turned into the COVID-9999 pandemic” (Urban Dictionary, 2021).

Based on the analysis of the quantitative ratios of lexemes and neologisms in each group, it can be concluded that the biggest number of neologisms are found in the category New living conditions (44%) followed by Position of Citizens (28%), Sphere of politics (14%), and Fake information (14%) (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

The percentage ratio of the number of lexemes and neologisms in 4 categories.

Word-building models of lexemes and neologisms related to COVID-19

This study describes seven word-building models that have been most often used to create neologisms and lexemes related to Covid-19.

Borrowing is a method or process of assimilation of words from a donor language by other languages. In this context, the donor language is the English language and most neologisms semantically related to Covid-19 are borrowed from it as English is an international language. Thus, most of the analyzed neologisms are borrowed from other languages and can be used in the same senses and contexts. It indicates the universality of this vocabulary group. We can find examples in the Chinese and Russian media, which are listed above.

Coinage is the process of creating a new word or expression, which acts as a completely new lexical unit and does not obey the rules of word-building models. For example, COVID = corona + virus + desease; nCoV – NovelCoronavirus.

Compounding is linking two or more words into one word, thereby a new unit is created. For example, corohara = coronavirus + harassment, covidexcuses =  covid  + excuses, coronapanic =  corona  + panic, coronafag =  corona  + fag, coronasceptic =  corona  + sceptic, coronagrass =  corona  + grass, coronawashing =  corona  + washing.

Blending is a word-building method that is most often found in the vocabulary of the English language among the neological units of COVID-19 (Samigoullina, 2021b). This method is characterized by merging two words to get a new unit. Traditionally, this is substitution blending that involves merging of two words and overlapping. For example, covidsation =  covid  + conversation, coronacation =  corona  + vacation, quaranteens = quarantine + teens, quarantime = quarantine + time, coronageddon =  corona  + Armageddon, coronaverse =  corona  + Universe, twindemic =  twin  + epidemic, infodemic = information + epidemic, coronopticon = corona + panopticon.

Another interesting example of blending is the word diplocovimacy =  diplomacy  + covi d; the covid unit is placed into the middle of the word diplomacy, thereby breaking its integrity but preserving the two parts: diplo + covi + macy.

The word maskulinity is also an example of blending; in this case, one letter changes but the pronunciation of the word does not, and the semantics of the lexeme is understood in context or in writing: maskulinity =  mask  + masc ulinity.

Blending can be compared with the method of crossing two words, which also involves the removal of the endings of the first word. For example, coronomics = corona + economics, covexit = covid + exit, covismart = covid + smart. This may also be overlap blending: covidiot =  covid  + idiot, covidivorse =  covid  + divorse, coronapocalypse =  corona  + apocalypse, coroneologism = corona + neologism, quaranzine = quarantine + magazine.

Clipping/truncation is a word-building model based on the principle of shortening a word or one of its segments. An example of a Covid-19 neologism created based on truncation is rona: coronavirus – corona – rona (rony). Ronais most often used in verbal communication.

Abbreviation is a unit that has been created by combining the first letters of other semantically related words. For example, BCAC = BeforeCoronaAfterCorona, PPE = PersonalProtectionEquipment, WHO = WorldHealthOrganization.

The formation of COVID lexemes with the help of numbers. This method has become one of the most relevant in the context of the pandemic as the term COVID-19 is a coinage that contains the number 19 as an identifier of the year in which the disease began to progress. The examples also include COVID-38, COVID-(19 + X), COVID-9999, and the first medical term of the 2019-nCoV disease.

Discussion

The new coronavirus vocabulary encompasses the semantics of a wide range of social problems that arise during a pandemic or the exaggeration and the metaphorical context of existing problems (Katermina & Lipiridi, 2020).

In the German language, the phenomenon of gender is also obvious as the gender of a word is determined by the articles der, die, and das. In addition, in the context of the borrowing of the word coronavirus, in the language, there is a tendency to use borrowed neologisms with the possibility of attributing them to several genders (Raikhan et al., 2020). For example, the Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel uses the article der in her statements while referring the word coronavirus to the masculine gender: “Vor allem aber schulden wir ihnen, dass der Coronavirus so wenig Möglichkeit hat, sich auszubreiten, wie wir das irgendwie können” (Mitvergnuegen, 2020). It is also worth noting that in the German language, neologisms that are compounds are written with a hyphen (Corona-krise) or in one word (Coronakrise), but most often a hyphen is more preferable. For example, the German Chancellor can be quoted: “Die Corona-Pandemie ist in der Tat eine gewaltige Herausforderung und wir stellen fest, dass alle Mitgliedstaaten betroffen sind” (Instagram, 2020).

The group division of neologisms semantically related to COVID-19 is based on the analysis of their semantic features and the functions that they perform during a communicative act (Samigoullina, 2021b). A separate group of lexemes is used in the context of a particular sphere. Today researchers describe new verbal situations that have arisen in the context of the pandemic. In a similar study, one can find such an example: “twindemic» is a coronavirus epidemic accompanied by an outbreak of another infectious disease (for example, influenza) (Samigoullina, 2021a). For example, “This unverified source suggests the possibility of a twindemic.”

Neologism «covexit» (a way out of the pandemic) is a government process or strategy to ease restrictions or quarantine conditions. It has been analyzed in the context of new living conditions. For example, “Dear colleagues, we have adopted covexit strategies to improve offline work.” In addition, this neologism may be a reference to another concept, brexit, which means the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Based on the examples of word-building models, it can be concluded that lexemes related to Covid-19 and created through blending and compounding constitute the largest number of neologisms in the languages; this finding is shared by most scientists who have studied this issue (Katermina & Lipiridi, 2020). It is also worth talking about “re-purposing,” which is where previously existing words get re-purposed in the corona context to have globally stable new meanings, like “social distancing,” “work from home,” “anti-vaxxer,” and so on, which may not be new lexemes but are semantic neologisms nevertheless. For example, another study demonstrates the collaborative, creative and emotional work of young people on social distancing narratives on Instagram and Twitter. They include narratives of fear, annoyance, amusement, and rejection of what is happening. Through these posts, they are changing the perception of COVID-19 risk and social distancing among their followers. In addition, intense social media interactions and extensive digital connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic have brought socio-cultural impacts that have changed everyday linguistic practice in the context of “re-purposing” (Mohamad, 2020). A study in Australia examined Australian media discourse about non-vaccination during a period when mandatory childhood vaccination policies were being discussed and introduced. Attention was focused on the common derogatory term “anti-vaxxer.” As a result, a set of 85 articles that used the term and 85 articles that did not use it, was created for comparison purposes. “Anti-vaxxer” was absent from Australian media discourse between 2008 and 2010, peaking at 247 articles using the term in the midst of legislative change in 2017. Articles using “anti-vaxxer” terms characterize unvaccinated parents negatively (Court et al., 2021).

Conclusion

The research involves the study of the social sources of the emergence of lexical units and their relationship with the areas of application of neologisms. The study also describes the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on society and public consciousness as part of the synthesis of linguistic and socio-political approaches to the study of the problem. One of the tasks was to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the attitude of people from different countries to the country of origin of the disease from the point of view of linguistics and socio-political discourse. This research provides facts and arguments that Chinese is not the donor language of COVID-19 neologisms. It is argued that the English language is the main donor of neologisms semantically related to COVID-19. The study describes the process of the appearance of the initial term of the disease, as well as the process of shortening the lexical unit.

Also, an analysis was made of the reinterpretation of concepts through the prism of the appearance of COVID-19 lexemes in the metaphorical language arising from socio-political discourse during a pandemic. Results gave grounds for the distribution of people into five statuses in the context of the pandemic, and, accordingly, categorization of neologisms into four groups. Each of the categories is characterized by a certain number of lexemes, the functions and semantics of which correspond to the characteristics of the group. Among the tasks, it was also highlighted the identification of the most relevant categories of neologisms associated with COVID-19 as well as the analysis of their word-formation models: 7 word-building models which are the most common means of creating new vocabulary related to COVID-19 and are endorsed by many researchers in this field have been described. The practical and scientific value of this study lies in the fact that it is a valuable resource for further study of lexicology, research on neologization processes, lexical borrowings, semantic features of new lexical units and their functions as well as the emergence of new word formation processes in the context of the socio-political events in the international arena. This study can be a source of additional materials for further research on the impact of the global social outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic on the formation of neologisms in the languages of the world.

Author biographies

Andrey Ivanov Ph. D. (Advanced Doctorate), Professor, The International Scientific Laboratory “Basic and Applied Linguistic Research”, Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod. Research interests: Russian as a foreign language, socio-political discourse, COVID-19 vocabulary.

Zhanna Nikonova Ph. D. (Advanced Doctorate), Rector of the Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod. Research area: theory of language, Germanic languages.

Natalia Frolova Ph. D., Associate professor, The Chair of the Foreign Languages Department of the Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod. Research interests: multimedia technologies in teaching foreign languages, applied linguistics.

Indira Muratbayeva Candidate of Philological scinces, Associate Professor of the Department of Socio-Cultural Technologies, Almaty branch of the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. Research interests: socio-cultural discourse, teen slang.