Исследование английской лексики, связанной с коронавирусом Курсовая работа (проект)

Neologisms are words that are completely new lexical units for each historical period. Such words have not yet entered the active vocabulary, so they may not be understandable.

The term "neologism" is applied to a newly created on the material of the language, in full accordance with the existing word formation models of a word or word combination in the language, denoting a new previously unknown, non-existing concept, subject, branch of science, profession, etc. For example: reactor – ядерный реактор, biocide - биологическая война, as well as to neologisms proper, namely to newly created synonyms of a word already existing in the language to denote a known concept, accompanying semantic and stylistic shades of a word, which are superimposed on its basic meaning, as well as words in a new meaning. For example, the word boffin (a scientist engaged in secret work, most often for military purposes) is close synonymous with the word scientist, but has a different semantic shade. There is also some heterogeneity in the composition of these lexical innovations for the reasons of their appearance, their stability in the language, their frequency of use, and their further destiny, when some of them are firmly entrenched in the language and others are less stable and can disappear after some relatively short period of time.

The reason for the appearance of neologisms is social, scientific and technological progress: the emergence of new socio-economic realities, discoveries in science and technology, achievements in the field of culture. The sign of neologism is the absolute novelty of the word for most native speakers. The word has the name neologism for a very short time. As soon as a word starts to be actively used, it loses the sign of novelty and becomes generally used. Nowadays the words lunar rover, cosmodrome, radar, carrier rocket, programming are not neologisms. These words were new for their historical period, but now they are absorbed by languages and are not perceived as new by native speakers.

An important issue in the research is also the question of how a new word is created. It is established that a certain individual participates in the act of primary adaptation of the object. In the structure of the act of nomination as a starting point is a complex intertwining of the speaker's intentions and his personal meanings, i.e. the individual semantic task of the speaker.

The man who creates a new word (originator) strives for individualization and originality. The word then goes through several stages of socialization (acceptance in society) and lexicalization (fixation in the language system). The word is perceived by intermediaries (purveyors) who spread it among the masses. These are usually university teachers, reporters and media. The word is recorded in the press. The next stage of socialization is the acceptance of the word by the masses of native speakers. Then comes the process of lexicalization, and then – acquisition of skills of adequate use of a new word, i.e. acquisition of communicative and pragmatic competence by native speakers.

The new coronavirus has almost paralyzed social life, causing businesses to close, large meetings to be cancelled and people to stay at home. 

The statistics of spreading is disappointing, almost all countries of the world today are fighting the epidemic. Large amounts of money are being spent to fight the virus, many businesses are closing, all these factors have a significant impact on the global economy in a whole. Also, the pandemic has caused a great resonance in society, we can see changes in language: the emergence of new words associated with the new virus, the formation of a special vocabulary, which refers to the coronavirus; also on the Internet there are a huge number of jokes and memes, many users of social networks are launching flash mobs.

Thus, we can state that the hypothesis of our research that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the language strongly and there appeared specific vocabulary and several neologisms has been confirmed. 

The aim of the research was carried out through resolving several objectives of the research. 

In the course of the study, we have solved the following objectives:

We have carried out analysis of the geopolitical and social situation connected with the coronavirus in the world; analyzed the current situation in our country, the United Kingdom and in the USA.  Also, we have made theoretical research of the nature of neologisms in English and their classification. Having analyzed the latest news in the media on the topic we came to the conclusion that the situation with COVID-19 indeed influenced the language greatly. Such words as, for example, novel, super-spreader, covidiot, screening, fomite, beer bug appeared.