Outbreak, surge or wave: how and what we say about the coronavirus

In the news language as a special media genre, changes in the lexical and semantic system of the language are very quickly manifested, reflecting the dynamics of social, political, and economic life. The research of news texts in critical eras is very relevant in terms of identifying trends in new vocabulary functioning. The pandemic is created a “pandemic” discourse in which new words are an important part of the lexical and semantic level of discourse. The study of neologisms in the active phase, at the very peak of functioning, allows us to comprehend the linguistic mechanism of new words formation, the external generation factor of which is extralinguistic reality. We establish that new words in the pandemic discourse appear in several ways: intralingual borrowing from highly specialized terminology (herd immunity, “cytokine storm”), foreign borrowing (coronavirus), as a result of metaphorization (wave, cover, crowned) and word-formation processes (corona, coronacrisis). Coronavirus is personified, it is presented as the evil of global and planet dimension, as a threat to humanity. We also reveal that the general emotional-expressive negativization of discourse determines the choice of native speakers from potentially possible extensions of the word semantics of meanings with negative evaluative connotations (crowned, burst). Semes of suddenness and intensity dominate in synonyms describing the coronavirus spread. The metaphor of wave contains a predictability component, which predicts the possibility of the next coronavirus wave, its timing, and the degree of danger to people. The enrichment of common words with highly specialized medical terms can be named as a specific tendency of the “pandemic” discourse.

1. Shmelev D.N. O semanticheskikh izmeneniyakh v sovremennom russkom yazyke [About semantic changes in modern Russian]. Razvitiye grammatiki i leksiki sovremennogo russkogo yazyka [Development of Grammar and Vocabulary of Modern Russian Language]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1964, pp. 4-17. (In Russian).

2. Shmelev D.N. O nekotorykh tendentsiyakh razvitiya sovremennoy russkoy leksiki [Some trends in the development of modern Russian vocabulary]. Razvitiye leksiki sovremennogo russkogo yazyka [Development of the Vocabulary of Modern Russian Language]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1965, pp. 5-16. (In Russian).

3. Gulyga E.V., Rozen E.V. Novoye i staroye v leksike i grammatike nemetskogo yazyka [New and Old in German Vocabulary and Grammar]. Leningrad, Prosveshenie Publ., 1977, 160 p. (In Russian).

4. Kotelova N.Z. Pervyy opyt leksikograficheskogo opisaniya russkikh neologizmov [The first experience of lexicographical description of Russian neologisms]. Novyye slova i slovari novykh slov [New Words and the Dictionaries of New Words]. Leningrad, 1978, pp. 6-13. (In Russian).

5. Kotelova N.Z. Neologizmy [Neologisms]. Lingvisticheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar’ [Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Moscow, Sovetskaya entsiklopedia Publ., 1990, pp. 331. (In Russian).

6. Kotelova N.Z. Vvedeniye [Introduction]. Slovar’ novykh slov russkogo yazyka (seredina 50-kh – seredina 80-kh godov) [Dictionary of New Words of the Russian Language (mid 50s – mid. 80s)]. St. Petersburg, 1995, pp. 4-11. (In Russian).

7. Volkov S.S., Senko E.V. Neologizmy i vnutrenniye stimuly yazykovogo razvitiya [Neologisms and internal incentives of language development]. Novyye slova i slovari novykh slov [New Words and the Dictionaries of New Words]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1983, pp. 43-58. (In Russian).

8. Chernikova N.V. Semanticheskiye neologizmy v sovremennom russkom yazyke, 80-e – 90-e gody XX veka: avtoref. dis. ... kand. filol. nauk [Semantic Neologisms in Modern Russian Language, 80s – 90s of the XX century. Cand. philol. sci. diss. abstr.]. Moscow, 1997, 26 p. (In Russian).

9. Krongauz M. Russkiy yazyk na grani nervnogo sryva [Russian Language on the Verge of Nervous Collapse]. Moscow, Znak Publ., Languages of the Russian Culture Publ., 2007, 232 p. (In Russian).

10. Krysin L.P. (executive ed.) Sovremennyy russkiy yazyk. Aktivnyye protsessy na rubezhe vekov XX–XXI vekov [Modern Russian Language. Active Processes at the turn of the 20–21 Centuries]. Moscow, Languages of the Russian Culture Publ., 2008, 712 p. (In Russian).

11. Gak V.G. O sovremennoy frantsuzskoy neologii [About modern French neology]. Novyye slova i slovari novykh slov [New Words and the Dictionaries of New Words]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1978, pp. 37-52. (In Russian).

12. Temirgazina Z.K. Namerennyye nedomolvki v ustnoy rechi: pragmaticheskiy aspekt [Intended omissions in oral speech: pragmatic aspect]. Filologicheskiye nauki. Nauchnyye doklady vysshey shkoly – Philological Sciences. Scientific Essays of Higher Education, 2013, no. 1, pp. 33-40. (In Russian).

13. Rodina N.A. Metafora kak sredstvo sozdaniya novogo znacheniya (na material prozvishch rossiyskikh voyennosluzhashchikh) [Metaphor as a means of creating a new meaning (based on the nicknames of Russian military personnel)]. Neofilologiya – Neophilology, 2020, vol. 6, no. 23, pp. 456-462. DOI 10.20310/2587-6953-2020-6-23-456-462 (In Russian).

14. Temirgazina Z.K. Zoomorfnaya model’ metaforizatsii v russkoy i kazakhskoy zoologicheskoy terminologii [Zoomorphic model of metaphorization in Russian and Kazakh zoological terminology]. Vestnik Tambovskogo universiteta. Seriya Filologicheskiye nauki i kul’turologiya – Tambov University Review. Series: Philology and Culturology, 2017, vol. 3, no. 1 (9), pp. 5-9. (In Russian).

15. Efremova T.F. Novyy slovar’ russkogo yazyka. Tolkovo-slovoobrazovatel’nyy: v 2 t. [New Dictionary of the Russian Language. Explanatory and Word-Formation: in 2 vols.]. Moscow, Russian Language Publ., 2000, vol. 1, 1209 p. (In Russian). Available at: https://www.efremova.info (accessed 02.08.2020).

16. Makovskiy M.M. Yazykovaya sushchnost’ sovremennogo angliyskogo slenga [The linguistic essence of modern English slang]. Inostrannyye yazyki v shkole – Foreign Languages for Schools, 1962, no. 4, pp. 102-112. (In Russian).