VERBALIZATION OF NEW RULES OF CONDUCT DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN MODERN GERMAN

Abstract

The article is devoted to the verbalization of new rules of conduct in German society during the coronavirus pandemic. The corpus of the linguistic units is collected. The units are researched from the cognitive-semantic point of view. The main ways of the building of the new units during the COVID-19 pandemic are examined. Word structure, word semantics, origin, and functions of language units in German digital media discourse are analyzed. The linguistic units are neologisms and verbalize the following conceptual spheres in the German linguistic worldview: 1) PRIVATE ENVIRONMENT: DISTANCE RULES, GREETING/ETIQUETTE, HYGIENE, CONTACT/VISIT, 2) PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT (WORK, SCHOOL/STUDIES): RULES OF CONDUCT IN THE WORKPLACE, RULES OF CONDUCT IN THE WORKPLACE IN SCHOOLS, 3) PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT: EXISTENCE, CONTROL SYSTEMS, STRATEGY, WARNING SYSTEMS. The linguistic units used for verbalizing new rules of conduct in modern Germany during the corona pandemic are currently created in three ways: 1) word formation, 2) language borrowing, 3) phraseologization. The 68% of new units are represented by word formation. The analyzed words are mainly created by compounding. The so-called hybrid compounds are a special group of determinative compounds, they consist of two vocabulary items – a german word and a borrowing from English, Latin, or Greek. 20% of units are loanwords. 12% of the new units are formed by primary phraseologization of free word combonations. The expressive conceptual metaphors are represented in the analyzed corpus, too. In particular, attention is paid to the pragmatic functions of new linguistic units in modern German media discourse. The study focuses on the german digital magazine Focus. The article offers perspectives on the new linguistic investigation. A contrastive study on the verbalization of new rules of conduct during the coronavirus pandemic in German and Ukrainian may be interested for modern linguists.