LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF CORONA AND COVID-19 RELATED WORDS IN THE MACEDONIAN STANDARD LANGUAGE

Abstract

Given that the world is still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and new words related to it are still penetrating the Macedonian language, this qualitative study examines these novel words from a linguistic point of view, stressing their meaning, formation, the word group they belong to and the emerging implications for all language levels. The sample consists of plenty of corona and COVID-19 related terms excerpted from an immense number of electronic journalistic articles published in 2021 and 2022. Processing data and reaching conclusions rests upon the method of interpretative analysis. The results indicate that the pandemic as a global phenomenon has had a huge impact on the Macedonian language as newborn words, mainly nouns and semi-compound nouns, have been introduced. Consequently, multifold implications have arisen on all language levels. In addition, the existing classification of neologisms has been enriched with new categories of neologisms due to the emergence of these recently formed words. Finally, the new corona and COVID-19 related words in the Macedonian language challenge Macedonian linguists particularly with respect to the interpretation of their meaning as well as their potential inclusion in the upcoming editions of the Macedonian monolingual dictionary.

Keywords: Linguistic analysis; Macedonian language; CORONA and COVID-19 related terms.