New Words in Greek and Russian During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The description of the facts of the lexical dynamics of the coronavirus period focuses on identifying similarities and differences in the linguistic practice of neologization of Greek and Russian languages. The features of the incorporation of loanwords and the subsequent adaptation of new lexical items in the modern socio-cultural context of these languages are considered through the prism of the impact of global processes. The research is conducted at the lexical-semantic, word-formation, and partially morphological levels. The material of the research was taken from lexicographic sources of modern Greek and Russian languages. The comparative analysis revealed processes common to both languages, such as vocabulary replenishment by borrowing from the same source donor language, and processes specific to each language, such as reborrowing in Greek in a different form or with a different meaning. Based on this analysis, we can conclude that most of the neologisms in these languages come from English, the donor language of the coronavirus lexicon in other languages. At the same time, despite certain similarities in the processes of penetration of new elements into Greek and Russian, the further assimilation of lexical units in each language has an individual character and features that often activate their own mechanisms of neologization. © Victoria G. Ouroumidou 2023.

"Everything will be all right (?)”: Discourses on COVID-19 in the Italian linguistic landscape

The study of the linguistic landscape (LL) focuses on the representations of languages on signs placed in the public space and on the ways in which individuals interact with these elements. Regulatory, infrastructural, commercial, and transgressive discourses, among others, emerge in these spaces, overlapping, complementing, or opposing each other, reflecting changes taking place and, in turn, influencing them. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of life, including cities, neighborhoods, and spaces in general. Against this background, the study of the LL is fundamental not only to better understand the ways in which places have changed and how people are interpreting and experiencing them but also to analyze the evolution of COVID-19 discourses since the pandemic broke out. This contribution aims to investigate how and in what terms the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the Italian LL, considered both in its entirety, as a single body that, regardless of local specificities, responded to and jointly reflected on the shared shock, and specifically, assuming the city of Florence as a case study. The data collected in the three main phases of the pandemic include photographs of virtual and urban LL signs and interviews, which were analyzed through qualitative content analysis with the aim of exploring citizens' perceptions and awareness of changes in the LL of their city. The results obtained offer a photograph of complex landscapes and ecologies, which are multimodal, multi-layered, and interactive, with public and private discourses that are strongly intertwined and often complementary. Furthermore, the diachronic analysis made it possible to identify, on the one hand, points in common with the communication strategies in the different phases, both at a commercial and regulatory level. On the other hand, strong differences emerged in the bottom-up representations, characterized in the first phase by discourses of resilience, tolerance, hope, solidarity, and patriotism, and in the second and third phases by disillusionment, despair, and protest. Copyright © 2023 Bagna and Bellinzona.

Publications Received

Social inferences, cultural differences, and linguistic misconceptions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Communicating COVID-19 and public health strategy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

COVID-19 Outbreak, State of a Questionable Dilemma, or a Learning Escape: Second Language Acquisition Within Virtual Learning and Social Contact

Digital learning, social contact and COVID-19 outbreak are three different phrases have been often heard, read or spoken about since 2020. Undoubtedly, these phrases have brought fear of uncertainty, but also hope to find a new perspective to keep life matters on-going including learning in general, and language acquisition in particular. In order to find the impact of virtual learning and social contact on second language acquisition, a total of 389 second language university students have either online surveyed or been interviewed to validate the results and avoid any misleading. After analyzing the data, results revealed that virtual learning has given the learner a chance to develop understanding of different aspects of learning a second language. Flexibility, free-learning, and richness of knowledge source are positive aspects of virtual learning. Likewise, social contact has an essential role in deepen the understanding of contextual use, semantics and lexis, and other aspects of second language acquisition. Interestingly, both social and virtual aspects of learning motivate the learner to reach language mastery. Therefore, the findings urge the use of virtual learning regarding social contact in developing linguistic skills in second language acquisition. Further insights are recommended to enrich the future research in this topic.

The Introduction of English-Induced Neologisms in Spanish Tweets: A Case-Study on covidiota

This paper intends to trace the introduction of an English-induced, COVID-related neologism, covidiota, into the Spanish language. The study is based on a corpus of tweets, starting in March 2020. It examines several specific features which mark the word as a new, unfamiliar item, such as different ways of graphical highlighting, for example. On the other hand, the paper aims to detect possible indicators of an integration of covidiota into the Spanish language use in the tweet corpus compiled for this case study. Copyright © 2022 Kailich.