NEOLOGISMS IN ENGLISH DISCOURSE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The article focuses on the specific features of the present-day English discourse of the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural and semantic characteristics of neologisms used within this discourse. The relevance of the study lies in the rapid increase in the number of texts on coronavirus issues during the current pandemic crisis and the emergence of numerous neologisms denoting the COVID-19 phenomena. The discourse of the COVID-19 pandemic is a new product of mental and speech activity of individuals, which was created during the events of 2019–2021. It was formed as a result of communication between participants of different status (professionals and civilians) integrating knowledge of coronavirus in different areas of human activity (epidemiology, politics, economics, business, psychology etc.) as the pandemic situation has had a huge impact not only on the health care system, but also radically changed other aspects of individuals' lives. The main goal of the addressers of the English discourse of the COVID-19 pandemic is to raise public awareness of the seriousness of the situation and the global importance of following quarantine regulations and restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus and save lives and protect human health. The studied discourse has a hybrid nature as it integrates the features of various types of discourse, namely medical, political, economic, psychological, educational, tourist and domestic discourse. The English discourse of the COVID-19 pandemic is characterized by a high influential potential, multimodality and neogeneity. Coronavirus texts are saturated with new words and phrases, the use of which has become widespread in the media. According to their structure the studied neologisms are compound words, most of which are formed by blending or clipping of two stems. They nominate new realities of life directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic.