Complex Words of the Coronavirus Era in Russian and Chinese: Word-formation Aspect

Li Syaoge ORCID: 0000-0003-3002-6968 postgraduate student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia; assistant, Faculty of Russian Language, Institute of Foreign Languages, Inner Mongolia Normal University 117198, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10, bldg. 2 lixiaoge89@mail.ru

IntroductionAmong all levels of the language system, the lexical one is the most sensitive to external factors, besides lexical changes are the most noticeable for native speakers ^{[3, p. 735]}.

Both in Russian and in Chinese, words continuously appear expressing new phenomena reflecting changes in the life of society – in culture, technology and other spheres. 

The pandemic of the new coronavirus, being a powerful medical and social phenomenon, could not but find its reflection in the language. There was a rethinking of already existing words (mask, distance, isolation, lockdown, etc.), as well as the emergence of new terms and commonly used words ^{[2, p. 265]}. The pandemic and the quarantine associated with it occupy a relatively short period of time, but in terms of the degree of influence on life, in particular on language and communication, it is actually a separate epoch ^{[3, p. 736]}. In this era, there is a rapid growth of neoplasms in many languages – this is related to the relevance of this work, due to the need to research and describe new lexical units that have not yet been recorded in dictionaries. The study of the specifics of their word formation is of great theoretical and practical importance. Knowledge of the word-formation patterns of the language, the ability to determine the meaning of word-forming morphemes contribute to a better understanding of the meanings of lexical units that name new phenomena in all areas of human activity and replenish the vocabulary of the language. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using its results in the teaching of university courses on the word formation of Russian and Chinese languages and their comparison, as well as courses on interdisciplinary research on the relationship between language and society.

In the course of the study , the following tasks were solved: 1) to analyze the main ways of formation of complex words of the coronavirus era in Russian and Chinese, which appeared or became actively used since 2020 by the time of writing the article; 2) to identify similarities and differences in the word formation of the studied complex words in the two languages.

The theoretical basis of the research was the works devoted to the issues of ways of forming complex words (Russian Grammar 1980; Zhang Chinxiang, Liu Yan, 2008), important language changes in the vocabulary of the coronavirus period (Krongauz M.A., 2020; Severskaya O.I., 2020; Grevtseva N.V., Donskova O.A., Ivanyushina E.B., 2021; Ridetskaya Y.S., 2021; Hou Min, Teng Yonglin, 2020; Zhang Liping, Liu Zhenping, 2020; Xu Xinjian, 2020; Wang Han, 2021; Radbil T.B., Ratsiburskaya L.V., Paloshi I.V., 2021; Wang Xiaoyan, Xu Haoyu, 2021). 

The collective monograph "The Russian Language of the Coronavirus era" systematically and comprehensively analyzes the neology of the pandemic period, as well as active word-making, intensive language play taking place on the Internet and in modern mass media ^{[6, p. 2]}. This monograph is a natural continuation of scientific work motivated by the need to record and describe the facts of language development during the pandemic, to generalize and systematize observations aimed at identifying key and peripheral names of the crown epoch, the dominant trends in the process of dictionary renewal ^{[1, p. 326]}.

Linguist M. Krongauz in his article "Screenlife in the era of quarantine" analyzed the process of borrowing an English word Zoom, the features of its mastering by the Russian language, in particular, the realization of its word-formation potential and the development of semantics ^{[3, p. 735]}. From the language material presented in this article, we have chosen two complex words: zoom meeting, zoom communication.In the article "Covidiots on quarantine: a coronavirus dictionary as a diagnostic field of actual discursive practices" O.I. Severskaya considered the so-called "coronavirus dictionary" in the context of actual discursive practices and determined the convergence of different types of discourses and speaking practices that motivate the creation of neologisms ^{[7, p. 887]}.

Among the words and phrases given by the author as an example, we selected 18 complex words for analysis.

Russian Russian authors of the article "Active processes in the vocabulary and word formation of the Russian language of the coronavirus era: linguocognitive aspect" investigated semantic, lexical and word-formation features of the emergence and spread of new phenomena in the speech practice of native speakers of the Russian language of the latest period associated with the COVID-19 pandemic ^{[4, p. 63]}. Among the language examples given by the authors, we selected 14 complex words for analysis.

Russian linguists, describing the techniques of neologization, note that for complex words, the addition of the basics (coronapanics, covidosceptic, etc.) is productive.

The works of Chinese researchers (Wang Xiaoyan, Xu Haoyu; Wang Han; Xu Xinjian; Hou Min, Teng Yonglin; Zhang Liping, Liu Zhenping) analyzed the causes of the emergence and spread of the so-called "coronavirus vocabulary" and the peculiarities of their formation and use ^[9-13]. In Chinese, neologisms associated with the coronavirus pandemic appear mainly in two ways: 1) the formation of new values of already known units: "new increment" (new value: "new cases of infection"), 2) according to an already existing model (according to the "xxxx" model: online learning, etc.). Among the examples given by the authors as examples of complex and compound lexical units, we selected 12 complex words for analysis.

Methods of formation of complex words of the coronavirus era in Russian and ChineseRussian Russian Grammar 1980 says that complex words in the Russian language are formed both by pure addition of bases or whole words, and in mixed ways, including using a set of affixes (inflection systems)

 ^{[5, pp. 137-138]}. According to the "Introduction to the Modern Chinese language", among the ways of forming compound words in the Chinese language, one can distinguish addition; definition, including in combination with suffixation; control; addition and according to the "subject + predicate" model ^{[14, p. 204]}. 

We examined 48 complex words of the coronavirus era extracted by the target sampling method from the sources listed above, combined these lexemes into several groups in accordance with the word-formation method. It should be noted that among the lexical units studied by us, not all methods of forming complex words are implemented.

Analyzing Russian words with more than one motivating basis (34 units), we have divided them into two groups: 1) formed by the method of pure addition and 2) formed by the method of addition or fusion in combination with prefix or suffixation.

Addition (pure addition) is a method of word formation in which the supporting (last) component is equal to the whole word, and the component (or components) preceding it are the pure basis ^{[5, p. 138]}. For example,

zoom meeting ^{[3, p. 737]}: the word zoom from the English Zoom, denoting a platform for organizing video conferences, which was developed by Zoom Video Communications ^{[3, p. 737]}. The word zoom-meeting is formed by adding two simple words zoom and meeting using a hyphen: zoom + - + meeting. The complex words of the thematic group "zoom" also include: zoom communications ^{[3, p. 737]}, zoom party ^{[7, p. 898]}, zoom lectures [ibid.], zoom classes [ibid.], zumbombing (connecting to someone else's network to disrupt a zoom conference) ^{[7, p. 899]}.

covidophobia ^{[4, p. 72]}: the word covid is a transcription of the letter abbreviation COVID from the English COronaVIrus Disease 2019 (coronavirus infection of 2019). The word covidophobia is formed by adding two simple words covid and phobia using the connective vowel "o": covid + o + phobia. Recently, under the influence of the trend towards internationalization in the derivational processes of the modern Russian language, the model of the formation of complex words according to the agglutinative type has become more active ^{[4, p. 72]}. The complex words of the thematic group "covid" also include covidopessimist ^{[7, p. 897]}, covid show [ibid.], covidapocalypse [ibid.], covid-dissenter ^{[4, p. 71]}, covid-patient [ibid.], covid-skeptic [ibid.], covid-separatism [ibid.], covid-hospital [ibid.],covid-resistance [ibid.].

coronasvadba ^{[7, p. 900]}: the word crown, formed as a result of truncation of the neologism corona virus, has become its unofficial, extremely popular variant ^{[4, p. 68]}. Complex nouns included in the word-formation nest with the original word coronavirus are represented mainly at the second stage of derivation by words of the agglutinative type with the original word crown ^{[6, p. 368]}. The compound word coronaswedding is formed by adding the nouns crown and wedding without using a hyphen and a connecting vowel. The complex words of the thematic group "crown" also include crown divorce ^{[7, p. 900]}, crown-hot spot (in "folk terminology" this is the name of the focus of infection) ^{[7, p. 898]}, coronaphobia ^{[7, p. 897]}, coronapanica [ibid.], coronabezumie [ibid.], coronapause [ibid.], coronapocalypse [ibid.], coronapolis ^{[4, p. 72]}, coronaisteria [ibid.], coronacrisis [ibid.], coronapsychosis ^{[4, p. 73]}, corona-dating [ibid.], corona therapy [ibid.], coronation generation [ibid.].

Addition or fusion in combination with inflections: 

Addition using prefixes and suffixes: for example, the word pre-coronavirus ^{[7, p. 896]} is formed by adding the roots corona and virus with the prefix before - and the suffix -h- and the ending of the adjective -th: up to + corona + virus + n + th. In a similar way , the word post - coronavirus is formed [ibid.]: post + corona + virus + n + th. 

Fusion using suffixation: for example, the word sididomtsy ^{[7, p. 898]} (those who stay at home and strictly observe the isolation regime) is formed by merging the root of the verb sid, the noun dom, using the connecting vowel "and", the suffix -c- and the plural form s: sid + i + dom + c + s.

In Russian, complex words are often formed using a hyphen or a connecting vowel "o", "e", "and" with one strong accent: zoom + - + meeting ? zoom-meeting; covid + o + phobia ? covidophobia; cor she + wedding ? coronation wedding.

Motivating words in the formation of composites are the "keywords" of the pandemic era of the XXI century, including neologisms borrowed from the English language. First of all, it is the abbreviation itself, denoting coronavirus infection and presented in the usage using different graphic systems: Latin letters (COVID), Cyrillic letters (covid), as well as other units, primarily the word zoom, which have acquired particular relevance and served as the basis for creating new complex words ^{[6, p. 389]}.

Analyzing Chinese compound words (14 units), taking into account the semantic relations between their constituent parts, we divided them into four groups according to the way of word formation. Russian Russian Translation When translating complex words from Chinese into Russian, we refer to their interpretations in the online dictionary "Big Russian-Chinese Dictionary" ^[1].

Addition (parallel combination) ^{[12, p. 204]}: complex words of this type consist of two (or more) bases, the meanings of which are either synonymous, relativistic, or antonymic. For example, 'isolation’ ^{[10, p. 131]} is formed by the addition of two verbs ? 'to separate’ and ? ‘to separate’, the meanings of which are synonymous and can be explained one through the other: ? ‘separate’ + ? ‘separate’.

Definition (or subordination) ^{[12, p. 204]} – the first word serves as a definition for the second, for example:

? ‘ 'new increment (new value: new cases of infection)’ ^{[8, p. 131]} is the sum of an adjective ? ‘new’ and a noun ? ‘increment’: ?‘new’ + ? ‘increment’; ‘turning point’ ^{[8, p. 131]} is the sum of an adjective ? ‘turning’ and a noun ? ‘time’: ? ‘turning’ + ? ‘moment’;

The ‘online meeting’ ^{[8, p. 131]} is formed by adding the word ‘in cloud format’ and the noun ‘meeting’, while the ‘in cloud format' can be considered as a similar affix ^{[11, p. 119]}: - ‘in the cloud format' + 'meeting'. This group includes the compound words ? ? ‘online learning’ ^{[7, p. 39]}, ‘online life’ ^{[7, p. 41]}, ? ? 'online hug’ [ibid.], the 'cloud era’ [ibid.], ? ? 'online broadcast’ [ibid.];

‘coronavirus era’ ^{[9, p. 114]} is the sum of an adjective ‘coronavirus’ and the noun ‘age’: ‘coronavirus’ + ‘age’. The complex words of the thematic group "?''coronavirus'" also include ? ' 'coronavirus poetry' [ibid.], 'coronavirus pneumonia’ [ibid.] etc.

Definition using suffixation ^{[12, p. 204]}: for example, a super-spreader (‘a person who is more likely to infect others than a typical infected person / refuses to observe the self-isolation regime and infects everyone around‘ ^{[6, p. 898]}) ^{[8, p. 132]} is formed by adding the adverb 'super-’, the verb 'to spread' and the suffix of the actor ?: ‘super-’ + ‘to spread’ + ? ‘the suffix of the actor’.

Management ^{[12, p. 204]}: the first word controls the second. For example, "decent"^{[10, p. 57]} is formed by the addition of the verb "have" and the noun "order": "have" + "order".

In Chinese, words are combined in accordance with a certain structural principle and taking into account semantic and syntactic connections: this can be a synonymous, relational, antonymic relationship, as well as a relationship of definition, control, etc. Sometimes, when forming words, affixes are added to the basics.

ConclusionWe analyzed 34 Russian compound words, among which 31 units are formed by the addition method, 2 – by the addition method with prefix and suffixation, and 1 more – by fusion with suffixation.

 Among the 14 Chinese compound words analyzed by us, 1 is formed by addition (parallel combination), 1 – by the definition model with suffixation, 1 – by the control model, the remaining 11 units are formed by the definition model.

The conducted research allows to reveal similarities and differences of word-formation mechanisms of formation of complex words in Russian and Chinese:

In both languages, among the ways of forming the complex words under consideration, the word composition has great productivity. In the Chinese language, the method of subordination by connection of the definition is more frequent, including in combination with affixes.

There are more transliterations from foreign languages in Russian than in Chinese: zoom, covid, crown, etc.

Prospects for further research may consist in the description of semantic typology and structural models of "coronalexics" in Russian and Chinese.