“Coronavirus” Innovations in Media Language and Internet Communication

Abstract

The article examines the structural features of neologisms associated with coronavirus pandemic based on the texts of mass media and Internet communication. The paper uses such research methods as the continuous sampling method, the general scientific descriptive and analytical method, the methods of word-formation, structural and semantic analysis of neologisms. The authors analyzed the nominal derivatives of conventional (addition, prefix, suffixation, affixation) and occasional (inter-word overlap, graphic hybridization, substitution derivation) methods of word formation in media texts. The key elements of the sociocultural space (virus, quarantine, coronavirus, masks, etc.) that evoke negative associations in the addressee are identified. Having found and analysed nominations with the corona component, the researchers proved that this element tends to demonstrate the features of prefixoid. Neologisms with corona component are critical phenomena, negative changes in the economy, tourism, politics; they denote the living conditions that have developed during the coronavirus infection, etc. It is shown that the vocabulary of the modern Russian language is actively replenished with verbal neologisms, which areused to add expressiveness to media text; they correlate with actual phenomena of public life. The authors conclude that "coronavirus" neologisms participate in creating the expressiveness of the text, reflect reality, and allow journalists to deliver their own opinion. The results of the conducted research contribute to word-formation neology, media linguistics, can be useful to students of philological specialties, lecturers and tutors, as well as to anyone interested in active processes, which occur in the modern Russian language.