Covid-19 Neologisms and their Social Use: An Analysis from the Perspective of Linguistic Relativism

Maryah Khalfan,Wasima Shehzad,Huma Batool

doi:10.32350/llr.v6i2.959

Abstract

This study aims to explore neologisms related to Covid-19 through the lens of the language-mind relationship, in terms of linguistic relativity. From a list of 25 Covid-19 neologisms collected from online dictionaries and Twitter.com, eight scientific and pop culture neologisms were selected to assess the motive of creation by exploring their first recorded use. Subsequently, the usage of Covid-19 neologisms in social media discourse was contextually analysed using the SFL framework of field, tenor, and mode to investigate whether it was illustrative of language influence over perception, or vice versa. A cyclic relationship was observed, in which perception prompted the creation of neologisms, whereas language influence on perception was evident in their usage in discourse.

Highlights

IntroductionLinguistic relativity, known as the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, is a theory which propounds that language affects the speaker’s world view
Does language influence perception or does perception influence language? Linguistic relativity, known as the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, is a theory which propounds that language affects the speaker’s world view
This study aims to explore neologisms related to Covid-19 through the lens of the language-mind relationship, in terms of linguistic relativity

Summary

Introduction

Linguistic relativity, known as the Sapir Whorf hypothesis, is a theory which propounds that language affects the speaker’s world view This has been rejected by another camp of linguists who showed that thought was independent of language (Scaller, 1991; Griffin & Speck, 2004; Osvath & Osvath, 2008) but influenced it. Neologisms are newly coined terms, words, or phrases in mainstream language to fulfill a need in speech often created by a new experience (Behera & Mishra, 2013). This is most obvious in the flood of neologisms that accompanied social networking and technology advances in the last two decades (Marin, 2016; Lehrar, 2003; Liu & Liu, 2014). The recent Covid-19 outbreak was followed by a wave of neologisms that contributed to the ever- evolving social discourse at different levels as Rafi (2020) states that the spread of Covid-19 gave rise to certain

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