The Language of the Pandemic (Based on the French Language Materials)

Abstract

This article deals with creative linguistic processes that take place in the French language during the coronavirus pandemic. The research materials were sourced from the media texts published in 2020-21. The conducted research helped to identify a number of distinctive features of the French language development during this period, such as the specifics of the internationalisms assimilation process, including the COVID-19 nomination, the peculiarities of adaptation of borrowings from the English language, as well as, neologization in general, which was characterized by both the emergence of new linguistic units and the semantic actualization of pre-existing lexemes. It is being noted that a large number of new words and their derivatives has emerged (including jokey compound words such as “covidiot”, “skypero”) that reflect new realities and new social practices. A conclusion is made about the interdiscursivity of the pandemic language, which is explained by the dramatic effect of the pandemic crisis, permeating all aspects of the society. The analysis of media texts also enabled to identify a wide use of precedent texts and to follow the formation of new statements that are precedent for representatives of the French linguistic culture. The article analyzes a large amount of linguistic and cultural material that is of interest to specialists in the field of French discourse, communication and translation.