Lexical Fields of the Pandemic Semantics in English and Russian

Abstract

The research is aimed at observing the cognitive mechanisms of lexical neologisation in the era of global social events through the identification of lexical features characterising the relatively new con-ceptual sphere “Pandemic” of the English and Russian languages. The authors investigate the trends in lexi¬cal neogenesis by conducting a comparative analysis of units belonging to the lexico-semantic fields. Scientific novelty of the work is not only determined by the problem stated, but also lies in the analysis of the factual material itself, taking into account the most productive word-formation models in compari-son of the two languages. Special attention was paid to speech-making language activity, in particular fig-urative naming units and play on words. Based on the research findings, the authors have clarified the defi-nition of a new word as applied to the pandemic era. As a result, it has been noted that vocabulary interna-tionalisation during the pandemic contributes to the formation of symmetrically arranged fields, which is an indicator of the lexical innovation activity of the pandemic period; the internal mechanisms of neo-genesis do not display similarities, while the connotative characteristics of lexemes differ in overall direction.

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About this article

Publication history

• Received: October 4, 2021.
• Published: November 30, 2021.

Keywords

• пандемия
• лексико-семантическое поле
• интернационализм
• заимствование
• актуализация значения
• pandemic
• lexico-semantic field
• internationalism
• borrowing
• meaning actualisation

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© 2021 The Author(s)
© 2021 Gramota Publishing, LLC

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