There's live today: lexical exchange spread by the internet in Brazilian Portuguese

ABSTRACT

It is notorious that the word live, originally English, has been used in Brazilian Portuguese. Based on that assumption, in this paper, we aim to observe if this lexical unit has assumed distinct uses and meanings in relation to the English language, especially during the period in which the Brazilians were in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, we sought to investigate them guided by the following questions how is the word live being incorporated in Brazilian Portuguese from a linguistic and cultural viewpoint? Is it a foreignism or is it already possible to recognize it as a neologism? To answer these questions, we are founded on the theoretical assumptions of the lexical studies regarding foreignisms and neologisms, as well as on some considerations about the linguistic and cultural exchange in the virtual environment. Also, methodologically, we use the web as a corpus to carry out and support our analysis.