Reflection on the Social and Psychological Consequences of the Coronavirus Pandemic in the New Vocabulary of the Non-professional English Language Medical Discourse

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201105.009How to use a DOI?

Keywords

social and psychological consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, neologisms, non-professional medical discourse, everyday and colloquial medical vocabulary, humor, coping behavior, transformation of public consciousness

Abstract

The article is concerned with neologisms of non-professional English language medical discourse, devoted to the social and psychological consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. It analyzes the reflection in the new medical vocabulary of such social realities created by the pandemic as observance, violation and easing of the quarantine regulations; creation of a strategy of public behavior aimed at containing the pandemic growth; growth of mood of panic and conspiracy theories; and the stigmatization of patients with coronavirus. This layer of everyday and colloquial medical vocabulary is considered from the standpoint of semantic, stylistic, linguopragmatic and axiological analysis, revealing the pragmatic potential of new words and expressions reflecting the pandemic impact on public consciousness. In particular, the humorous, ironic, satirical plans of this new medical vocabulary are considered, serving the purpose of creating a new value system aimed at overcoming the consequences of the pandemic through psychological compensation. The links between non-professional medical and political discourses are also identified, reflecting the extreme politicization of modern media, which affects the reality perception by common participants in the discourse. The combination of these vocabulary items provides a comprehensive picture of the specifics of public life in mass psychology during the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The study material is the articles of the Urban Dictionary online dictionary of Internet slang devoted to various aspects of the coronavirus pandemic impact on public and private life. Based on the analysis of this constantly updated material, we deduce the regularities of the attitude evolution towards the coronavirus pandemic of a significant part of the international community.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - V.V. Katermina
AU  - S.Ch. Lipiridi
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/06
TI  - Reflection on the Social and Psychological Consequences of the Coronavirus Pandemic in the New Vocabulary of the Non-professional English Language Medical Discourse
BT  - Proceedings of the Research Technologies of Pandemic Coronavirus Impact (RTCOV 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 44
EP  - 49
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201105.009
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201105.009
ID  - Katermina2020
ER  -