Integration of English Language Borrowings and Neologisms into Different Structured Languages (Based on the Material of Lexical Units of the Coronavirus Period)

 A distinctive feature of the lexical composition of any language, as an integral part of the language system, is variability, mobility and flexibility. The vocabulary, as is known, reflects the changes taking place in the social and cultural life of the society of native speakers. In this case, the role of the mass media as distributors of new borrowings should be noted. Foreign words are often adapted in the language, thanks to journalistic texts that set the tone for their widespread use in speech ^{[7, p. 255]}.Despite the close attention and in-depth study of English-language borrowings and neologisms associated with the coronavirus pandemic, the comparative aspect based on the comparison of structural and functional features of borrowed words has not been sufficiently developed.

This fact determines the relevance of this study. It is in the borrowed vocabulary that global changes in society find their imprint. A detailed analysis will allow us to understand what diversity lexical systems of different languages acquire in modern conditions of intercultural contacts.            

In the process of research , the following tasks are solved: 1) based on various Russian-, English- and French-language information sources, to identify a list of the latest Anglicisms; 2) to study various ways of formation and morphological structure of the latest Anglicisms and neologisms; 3) based on the classification of models of neologisms and borrowings to identify the stage of integration of these lexical units. 

The paper uses such research methods as comparative, component and functional-semantic analysis of language units.

The theoretical basis of this study was the works of domestic and foreign linguists devoted to the problem of borrowing ^{[1; 10; 12]}.

The practical significance of this study lies in the fact that the comparative analysis carried out in the study replenishes the corpus of the latest vocabulary, which can be taken into account when compiling special university courses (modern French, linguistics, contrastive linguistics, modern stylistics).        

The actual material was selected by continuous sampling from Internet sources (articles of news sites, online dictionaries, news feeds of Russian social networks) of Russian and foreign sources.

English-language borrowings, the so-called lexical units of the coronavirus period, have relatively recently appeared in Russian and French, some researchers designate them with the terms "newest borrowings" or "borrowings-neologisms". At the same time, the concepts of neologism and borrowing-neologism are clearly distinguished. The latter is a new lexical unit that has arisen in the language, thanks to its own resources, on the basis of a borrowed lexical unit. A specific feature of the newest foreign-language words is the so-called non-fixation. These words have not yet entered the lexical system of the language and are not reflected in lexicographic sources (dictionaries of new words or explanatory dictionaries) ^{[4, p. 20]}.

Based on V.M. Aristova's theory of English-Russian language contacts, we distinguish the concepts of Anglicism or English-language borrowing and neologism in our study. Obviously, by the first linguistic phenomenon we mean the English-speaking units borrowed into the recipient language (in this case, Russian and French) over the past four years.

In order to understand more clearly the purposes of our research, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the concept of neologism. Thus, L.L. Kasatkin believes that the terms neologism or new word, neoplasm, innovation are synonymous and all refer to derivational changes indicating morphological, phonetic, syntactic aspects of the emergence of a new word. Thus, a neologism is understood as a new word consisting of elements previously used in the language. This linguistic phenomenon is precisely what we observe in English-language information sources, when, as a result of language manipulations, new phrases associated with world events known to us have entered English-language speech usage ^{[6, p. 173]}.                  

Before proceeding to the description of the conducted research, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the reasons for the appearance of various kinds of borrowings, as well as their consolidation in the language.

The accommodation of borrowed vocabulary in a language is a long-term process, as a result of which one state of the lexical stock is replaced by another ^{[7, p. 257; 8]}.  The first adaptation model of V.M. Aristova interprets the integration of foreign words into the recipient language, which goes through three stages ^{[1, p. 58]}.

The introduction of new words into the language is the initial stage of its adaptation. Foreign lexical units at this stage are still connected with the native language, but since they are often used in oral and written speech, they gradually penetrate into it. This stage is characterized as borrowing or penetration.

Unlike V. M. Aristova, L. P. Krysin distributes the process of accommodation into several stages:

1. Initially, the adaptation of a foreign word into the recipient language lexical unit is used in the same written and grammatical forms as in the native language.  

2. At the second stage of integration, the word takes over the graphic form of the recipient language.   

3.   There is a complete adaptation of a foreign lexical unit in the receiving language, i.e. native speakers do not feel a foreign origin in the word ^{[8, p. 74]}.

4. At this stage, the stylistic features of the borrowed word are lost.

         5. As a result, we observe the fixation of a foreign word in an explanatory dictionary or dictionary of neologisms, which indicates its full integration ^{[10, p.74; 5, p. 209]}.

Modern linguistic science is rapidly developing and adapting to new realities and events. It is not surprising that the outbreak of coronavirus infection has affected everyday speech. Since about December 2019, we have witnessed how new words are used in social networks, memes and the media.

The impact of the pandemic as a cultural and social phenomenon on many languages is specific. Consequently, the so-called "new words" require close and detailed study

The purpose of our study is to study Anglicisms in Russian and French and neologisms in English during the coronavirus pandemic. And we should also pay attention to the description of the structural and morphological characteristics of individual linguistic units.

Let us turn directly to the analysis of lexical units in three different-structured languages in accordance with the three-component model: 

The first component of a neologism is a phrase formed using the techniques of compounding, mixing, affixation and abbreviation. Consider the following English-language neologisms COVID-19 (Coronavirus Deasease 2019 - coronavirus disease 2019); Adjectives formed by affixation have a special semantic meaning.

With their help, we perceive the surrounding reality before and after the pandemic, here an important role was played by the English prefix pre- : coronavirus, covid, virus – the time before the pandemic and the prefix post- : covid, coronavirus, virus (precoronavirus, precovid, previrus; postcovid, postvirus, postvirus). 

We can also refer to the first method of education abbreviations that came into use during the pandemic.

Until 2019, the abbreviation WFHP (working form home place – working from home) was an extremely rare phenomenon, then during the pandemic to this day, most of the mass events, including various conferences, department meetings, lectures, are held from a home computer using Internet applications.       

An interesting origin is the abbreviation IPG – individual protective garments individual means of protection. As well as the previous example, this expression was used back in the 70s of the last century when British missionaries and medical workers worked in the countries of colonial Africa. Now we are witnessing a revival to previously used phrases and terms.   

We will also give examples of compounding, neologisms formed by adding two or more words:   covdivorces is a lexical unit denoting divorces during quarantine (covid, divorce); cov babies – children born in the period 2019-2021 (covid, baby); cor vacation – coronavirus vacations, an expression humorously used to describe the time forcibly spent in the walls of the house (corona, vacation); infocaronic – implausible information, spread during a pandemic, often groundlessly (information, corona) ; covdrinking – the use of alcoholic beverages during lockdown (covid, drinking); mondemic– forced monetary expenses during quarantine (money, pandemic); zoomwearing – a style of clothing characteristic of solving working moments online, when we can afford a strict top and home bottom (zoom, wearing) ^{[9, c. 983]}.    

The second component of the neologistic model is borrowing. Native speakers use terms from other languages that have no equivalent in the target language. Depending on the context and situation, speakers borrow a sentence or a single word to make communication effective. Borrowing is a tool for integrating new words into the vocabulary of a particular language.

To this model we can refer the following phrases: elbow hit – elbow strike, used by analogy with the statement give five, to express complete unanimity and agreement with the speaker. Here we are witnessing a cultural linguistic transformation, now people, even in post-teen age, are more likely to "hold an elbow" than shake hands.  

Lockdown and chill is a new lexical unit for the designation of spending time together in quarantine, formed by analogy with the world–famous expression Netflix and Chill (Rest with Netflix), when a family gathers together to watch video content on the Netflix platform ^{[3, p.158]}.The third component is lexical deviation.

Lexical deviation tends to generate neologism, which refers to the process of creating new words by applying existing rules of word formation based on the principle of generalization.

The following Anglicisms that have no analogue in Russian or French are lexical deviations:  coro pression is the deliberate persecution of people who have signs of a viral infection after returning from abroad (corona, expression); corancell – events canceled due to coronavirus.

Over the past four years, a paradoxical situation has developed in the Russian-speaking information space, assimilated English-language borrowings have gradually turned into neologisms related to the third component of the model: Self-isolation; Quarantine; Remote; Remote; Maskobesie; Covidnik; Covidarity. Note that according to VESTI.<url>, who published the research of the Institute of Linguistic Research, thanks to affixes (root, ending and prefix), old phrases play with bright colors, for example, Covidlo, Viruspudence, Quarantine, Crowned (people who have had covid).      

 The coronavirus pandemic has also had a significant impact on the massive influx of borrowings from English in French-speaking Internet sources and dictionaries.

During the pandemic, serious debates unfolded related to the choice of the article “le” or “la" before the word Covid. The Le Petit Robert dictionary records the designation in both genders: masculine and feminine. L'Acad?mie Fran?aise and the Quebec Office of the French language speak in favor of the use of the feminine gender, since the “D” of “COVID” means the word “disease” (English disease), which in French is used in the feminine gender. In printed publications, this masculine word form is most often found. At the same time, many linguists use the feminine article in their publications, although they tend to use “le Covid” in everyday speech ^{[2, p. 3492]}.

The dictionary of the French language of the pandemic period has been replenished with new words – Anglicisms: cluster – a focus of infection; coworking – coworking; coronial (coronavirus + millennial) – a child born during the pandemic; tracking – a digital strategy for identifying people in contact with infected; cloud rave – an online DJ set; lockdown parties – online parties; zoombombing – interference in a Zoom conference; superspreader - a person who infected many people with coronavirus, etc.

The vocabulary of the French also included the English expression “Clap Clap O'CLOCK” (clapping), which denoted the time of applause, at about 8.00 pm, as a sign of gratitude to the doctors for their hard and dangerous work.

The list of new words also included those that have existed in the language for a long time, but have expanded their meaning: les anticorps – antibodies; la comorbidit? – concomitant disease; le confinement – self–isolation; le d?confinement – quarantine cancellation; la distanciation sociale - social distancing; le gel – antiseptic; les gestes – precautions; le jauge – the permitted number of visitors to public places; le positif / n?gatif – positive or negative (test); le vaccinodrome – place for vaccination; le variant – strain (virus).

In the modern media space, proper names denoting realities or brands have become widely used (Pfizer, AstraZeneca (names of vaccines); Raoult (a French doctor researching the treatment of covid); Lancet (medical journal); Microsoft, Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp), as well as abbreviations (PCR / PCR test for coronavirus); R-0 – patient zero; ARS – national health agencies; FFP2 – mask-respirator, etc.).

Just as in English, in French we observe the formation of neologisms according to the first model, in particular the use of abbreviations, compounding.

The modern French language of the pandemic period was replenished with words that were formed by adding truncated bases or telescopes (the so-called suitcase words, French mots-valise – a language construct created by combining two words): le covidiot (covid+idiot) – a person who neglects the rules of self–isolation; la covidiotie - disregard for the rules of self-isolation; le covidiome is a word or expression reflecting the theme of the pandemic; le lundimanche (lundi+dimanche) is the same, recurring day that all days of the week have turned into during lockdown; le m?lancovid is melancholy caused by being in self–isolation, etc.

Thus, during the coronavirus pandemic, the vocabulary of the French language has been replenished with new words in an unprecedented way, and terms previously known only to a narrow circle of specialists in the field of medicine are becoming widespread in the language of the media and in everyday speech, and some terms at the same time receive new relevant meanings.

The influence of foreign language borrowings and neologisms is a global phenomenon in the world community. Borrowed lexical units have a good survival rate in the system of the receiving language and the foreign language origin is not felt by native speakers, it can be detected only with the help of etymological analysis ^{[11, p. 882; 12]}. The full integration of foreign-language borrowings, as well as neologisms that arose due to the transformation of the above-mentioned lexical units, has become quite feasible as a result of double word formation, namely compounding and affixation, mixing and affixation, as well as clipping and compounding. It should be noted that the lexical innovations analyzed by us took place and were tightly implemented in Russian, English and French with the help of these language techniques.  

Having carried out the analysis in accordance with the classification models, we can conclude that these lexical units are at the initial stage of integration in three different structured languages. Many of them have a complex morphological structure. Borrowing is a living process: the recipient language does not just perceive a new word, but somehow absorbs it into the system of its internal linguistic relations.  However, even with globalization, which is a key factor in the emergence of neologisms, the Russian and French languages need quite a long time to master Anglicisms, just as the English language requires internal resources and time to master new words.  

Having studied the features of the integration of Anglicisms in Russian and French, as well as neologisms in English, we came to the following conclusions: 

1. Most of the analyzed phrases are Anglicisms (40 units in Russian-language Internet sources, 52 in French); however, neologisms in English–language sources are the largest group – 96 units that denote new social phenomena.

2.     Both neologisms in English and Anglicisms in Russian and French have a complex morphological structure. Their appearance is due to various word-formation methods (affixation, compounding, mixing, etc.).

3. The adaptation of Anglicisms in the Russian and French languages is quite homogeneous. Neologisms in English have tightly covered the mass media and everyday speech. For example, some of the newest phrases, once on the pages of Internet content, have already undergone changes, turning into slang expressions (the expression corona is a colloquial abbreviation of coronavirus).

4.      It should be noted that the latest Anglicisms in the Russian language have not yet been reflected in the corresponding dictionaries, just as neologisms in English have not taken their place in Oxford Leaner's Dictionaries, Macmillan Dictionary, etc.  It should be noted that the French-speaking world community has already managed to fix the latest Anglicisms in French dictionaries, including in Le petit Robert.        

Let's pay attention to the fact that the results of our study are ambiguous. The analyzed factual material is insufficient, in our opinion. Due to the current political and economic situation in our country, we were limited in Internet sources. However, we believe that the work we have done allows us to draw the above conclusions. 

The prospects for further research of this problem include a more detailed comparative analysis of the features of the integration of the latest Anglicisms in Russian- and French-language texts of different thematic areas. In addition, the study of this problem in the functional aspect, from the standpoint of such linguistic areas as translation studies, linguoculturology, etc., is of great interest.