A Sociolinguistic Approach to Linguistic Changes since the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak

Ibrahim, Estabraq Rasheed; Kadhim, Suzanne Abdul-hady; Mayuuf, Hussain Hameed; Haleem, Haneen Ali

doi:10.5281/zenodo.4262696

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Several studies have described the COVID-19 times as “an era of fake news” in which misinformation has spread rapidly, in some cases threatening the individual’s mental health and well-being [ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Thus, during this period, social media have played a major role in everyday communication; new words and figurative expressions, as well as shifts in the use and meaning of typically sociological, psychological, or even medical terms, have been adopted [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Indeed, human language is not a static concept but a dynamic, creative, and adaptive entity with words changing over time due to the actual social context in which interpersonal and social phenomena are incorporated [ 23 , 24 , 27 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, during this period, social media have played a major role in everyday communication; new words and figurative expressions, as well as shifts in the use and meaning of typically sociological, psychological, or even medical terms, have been adopted [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Indeed, human language is not a static concept but a dynamic, creative, and adaptive entity with words changing over time due to the actual social context in which interpersonal and social phenomena are incorporated [ 23 , 24 , 27 ]. Among the figurative expressions, the usage of metaphors has received special attention [ 25 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Particularly, words that frequently co-occur in any language modality (spoken and/or written) become associated and, consequently, more interconnected in the semantic network [ 40 , 41 ]. Indeed, social context can influence our language use by making familiar words not previously frequently used [ 23 , 24 ]. Thus, given these premises, the hypothesis might be advanced that the overuse of newly acquired metaphors during the pandemic has reshaped our semantic memory, thus, establishing new semantic associations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?

Pisano

Manfredini

Brachi

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to severe consequences for people’s mental health. The pandemic has also influenced our language use, shaping our word formation habits. The overuse of new metaphorical meanings has received particular attention from the media. Here, we wanted to investigate whether these metaphors have led to the formation of new semantic associations in memory. A sample of 120 university students was asked to decide whether a target word was or was not related to a prime stimulus. Responses for pandemic pairs in which the target referred to the newly acquired metaphorical meaning of the prime (i.e., “trench”—“hospital”) were compared to pre-existing semantically related pairs (i.e., “trench”—“soldier”) and neutral pairs (i.e., “trench”—“response”). Results revealed greater accuracy and faster response times for pandemic pairs than for semantic pairs and for semantic pairs compared to neutral ones. These findings suggest that the newly learned pandemic associations have created stronger semantic links in our memory compared to the pre-existing ones. Thus, this work confirms the adaptive nature of human language, and it underlines how the overuse of metaphors evoking dramatic images has been, in part, responsible for many psychological disorders still reported among people nowadays.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?

Pisano

Manfredini

Brachi

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Neologism Related to COVID-19 Pandemic: A Corpus-Based Study for the Bengali Language

Senapati

Nag

2022

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

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A Semi-automated Approach for Bengali Neologism

Senapati

2023

SN COMPUT. SCI.

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Neologisms refer to newly coined words or phrases adopted by a language, and it is a slow but ongoing process that occurs in all languages. Sometimes, rarely used or obsolete words are also considered neologisms. Certain events, such as wars, the emergence of new diseases, or advancements like computers and the internet, can trigger the creation of new words or neologisms. The COVID-19 pandemic is one such event that has rapidly led to an explosion of neologisms in the context of the disease and several other social contexts. Even the term COVID-19 itself is a newly coined term. Studying such adaptation or change and quantifying it is essential from a linguistic perspective. However, identifying newly coined terms or extracting neologisms computationally is a challenging task. The standard tools and techniques for finding newly coined terms in English-like languages may not be suitable for Bengali and other Indic languages. This study aims to use a semi-automated approach to investigate the emergence or modification of new words in the Bengali language amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. To conduct this study, a Bengali web corpus was compiled consisting of COVID-19 related articles sourced from various web sources in Bengali. The current experiment focuses solely on COVID-19-related neologisms, but the method can be adapted for general purposes and extended to other languages as well.

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A Sociolinguistic Approach to Linguistic Changes since the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Our Language Use?

Neologism Related to COVID-19 Pandemic: A Corpus-Based Study for the Bengali Language

A Semi-automated Approach for Bengali Neologism

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