«Coronavirus Pandemic» Conceptual Framework: Analysis of Verbal Representation in the English-Speaking Media

Polonskaya Olesya Yur'evna PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages №2, Irkutsk National Research Technical University 664074, Russia, Irkutsk region, Irkutsk, Lermontov str., 110 apolon38@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Scientific background of the analysis was linguo-cognitive research, presented in the works of famous linguists ^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}.

Thus, we can say that a concept is a part of the conceptual framework that has its own history and acts as a global multidimensional mental unit. The concept is multifaceted, so its structure can be viewed from various perspectives.

Having identified, examined and analyzed various representatives associated with the coronavirus pandemic, we have distinguished a number of thematic groups, while dividing them into three components: nuclear concept; circumnuclear concepts; peripheral concepts.

Let's consider some of them separately.

The core of the «coronavirus pandemic» conceptual framework is the concept of «COVID as a disease». The original name - 2019-nCoV - from the English Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus).

The Merriam-Webster English Dictionary, defining COVID-19, at the end of the dictionary entry indicates: «called also coronavirus, coronavirus disease, coronavirus disease 2019, CV-19, CV19» ^[10].

In addition, colloquial designations «covid» and «coronavirus» are common. In colloquial speech and the Internet «corona» and «c-word» were added to these nominations. «Corona» is a shortened form of «coronavirus» and «c-word», where «c-» is used in the meaning of «coronavirus» in order not to pronounce this word.

We can also find the names of the disease formed from proper names. These words are created according to different models and, as a rule, carry a derogatory connotation. In this case, it refers not only to the named phenomenon (the object itself), but also directly to the person whose name served as a motivator. The most frequent sources of allusion on a thematic basis are anthroponyms or proper names. For example, «Miss Rona», «Aunt Rona», «the Rona» are often used as an ironic take on COVID-19, while adding «Miss» or «the» to personify and to add a touch of «impertinence».

Thus, we can conclude that due to the scale of the spread of the disease, its name has not only expanded the boundaries of its use, but has also found its application in colloquial speech, while adopting new forms. The concept of «COVID as a disease» is nuclear.

The next concept «people during the coronavirus pandemic» refers to the circumnuclear zone. It can be divided into the following three sub-concepts: «human behavior during the pandemic»; «people with coronavirus, patients, etc.»; «authorities during the pandemic».

Sub-concept «human behavior during the pandemic» is verbalized by lexemes: covidiot, covidient, quaranteams, quaranqueens, quarantrolls, maskulinity/ maskhole, lockdowners, covismart, corona bae, corona cunt, thorona, coromies, bubble, armchair virologist, covidpreneurs, flu bro, coronasshole, maskulinity, slackers, quarantroll, covid muncher, coronaskeptics, corona dissident. For example, one of the most popular lexemes "covidiot" is formed by addition coronavirus and idiot. «Covidiot - someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety». [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Covidiot]

«Did you see that covidiot with 300 rolls of toilet paper in his basket?» [https://magazine.skyeng.ru/covidiot-everywhere/]

«I see too many covidiots on social media spreading false information about the virus.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Covidiot&page=2]

«I cannot listen to that covidiot blab on about pseudoscience he read on social media.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Covidiot&page=3]

Another example is the word «quaranteams». It is formed by adding two words: «quarantine» and «team». «Quaranteams - people one chooses to live with during a coronavirus quarantine.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Quaranteam]

«People are ditching their homes and joining their friends to avoid isolation. It’s called quaranteaming.» [https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/17/us/quaranteam-coronavirus-wellness-trnd/index.html]

«Gideon Lichfield recently broke two months of isolation to form with some friends, what’s known, a quaranteam.» [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMyYWrRzAgU]

«My girlfriend lives by herself, so my roommates and I have included her in our quaranteam.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Quaranteam]

Sub-concept «people with coronavirus, patients, etc.» includes such words as: coronaed, covid-infected, coronic, super-distributor, contactless, contagious, patient zero, coronator, covid patients, coronado, covid-19 patients, Pui, weakened, painful and many others.

«Coronic» is used not only in the meaning of a person who has fallen ill with coronavirus, but also to indicate the condition in which the sick person is. Often this adjective is applied to a person from whom it is worth staying away, in order not to get sick:

«She died after being the first in Wuhan to become coronic.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Coronic]

«Coronic Need for Positivity» by Pastor Bozidar Prgonjic, Divine Service 12 February 2022 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkL4C30J1do]

«Super-spreader» is another word that has appeared in people's lives. «It is a bit of a vague term, with no strict scientific definition. But it is when a patient infects significantly more people than usual.» [https://www.bbc.com/news/health- 51447143]

«A few super-spreaders appear to have transmitted the virus to as many as 10 people each.» [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/super-spreader]

«It is impossible to know who will be a super-spreader and who will not.» [https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/super-spreader]

«Super-spreaders: what are they and how are they transmitting coronavirus.» [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/27/what-are-super-spreaders-and-how-are-they-transmitting-coronavirus]

The third sub-concept of «authorities during the pandemic» includes such words as: a covid-19 committee, cohorting, coronagrass, covid-marshals, corona-chief, corona warriors:

«COVID-19 committee stresses need for equitable vaccine access, more data sharing.» [https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1082182]

«Corona Warriors: The Real Super heroes». [https://www.gniotgroup.edu.in/blog/index.php/2021/02/22/corona-warriors-the-real-super-heroes/]

«A few of these corona warriors have risked their lives in service of those very persons who had attacked them.» [https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/the-corona- warriors/article31544102].

It should be noted that such terms are extremely rare in colloquial speech. Some were proposed in online discussions on the Internet, while they did not expand their scope of use, securing the status of single-use words.

In our work, we have identified three main sub-concepts: «human behavior during the pandemic»; «people with coronavirus, patients, etc.»; «the authorities during the pandemic». The analysis of the material obtained made it possible to conclude that there is a huge number of words emerged during the coronavirus period to designate categories of people. All the lexemes verbalizing these concepts reflect what is happening in society. This is supported by the fact that there is an individual concept for each category of people.

Another concept of the circumnuclear zone «processes and actions of people during the coronavirus pandemic» is verbalized by the following: spendemic, doomscrolling, doomsurfing, corona-shaming, colonavirusing, zumping, curtain-twitching, covidiction, covidivorce, coronallusional, , isobaking, coronavirusing, coronortunity, coronavirus tour, corona clam jam, COVID-19 surveillance , coronasplaining, coronacut, ronadobbing, coronasnitching, covidobbing, yob-dobbing, self-monitoring, loopholing, quaz, virtual happy hours, covidpreneur, ronavation and others.

The lexeme spendemic is based on the English verb «to spend» and the noun «an epidemic». This word refers to the increase in online shopping during the pandemic:

«To compensate for feeling frustrated during the lengthy coronavirus pandemic shelter-in-place, many people have been creating a spendemic.» [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Spendemic]

«Spendemic: Japan’s Marketing of Mythical Creatures and the Business of Selling Hope.» [https://iafor.org/journal/iafor-journal-of-cultural-studies/volume-7-issue-1/article-5/]

Doomscrolling — addiction of constant searching and reading negative news about the coronavirus — consists of two parts: «doom» (a gloomy end that cannot be avoided) and «scrolling» (scrolling through the content):

«Why you can't stop doomscrolling and 5 tips to halt the vicious cycle.» [https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/doomscrolling]

«I’ve been doing a lot of this kind of doomsurfing recently — falling into deep, morbid rabbit holes filled with coronavirus content, agitating myself to the point of physical discomfort, erasing any hope of a good night’s sleep.» [https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at- play/doomsurfing-doomscrolling-words-were-watching].

«Are you spending too much time looking for news about COVID- 19? If you are doomsurfing, it may be time to take a step back and ask yourself what you really need to know.» [https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at- play/doomsurfing-doomscrolling-words-were-watching]

Corona-shaming - criticizing those who have infringed public health regulations. This expression was formed due to the merger of the two words «corona» and «shaming»:

«Celebrities and public figures are the most visible targets of corona-shaming.» «… corona-shaming will surely become more widespread.» [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/style/coronavirus-public-shaming.html]

«When she got home, she shared her anger on the corona-shaming Facebook page» [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/style/coronavirus-public-shaming.html]

Summing up, we can say that the concept of «processes and actions of people» is a reflection of what is happening with people in society. At the same time, some words with a low frequency of use and a narrow scope of functioning are becoming extremely popular due to the increase in online communications on the Internet, which is causing the rapid spread of new language phenomena.

Within the framework of our study, we will consider several peripheral concepts: «media during a pandemic», «personal protective equipment and disinfection» and «pandemic consequences».

The concept of «media during a pandemic» is verbalized by: coronavirus briefs, сovid-19 data, сovid-19 news, the coronavirus situation, corona-speak, quaranstream, telemedicine, disinformation pandemic, coronaspiracy (theory), infodemic.

Infodemic — the processes of accelerated spread of disinformation — is formed by mixing two words: information + pandemic:

«According to the WHO, the COVID-19-related infodemic is just as dangerous as the virus itself.» [https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/fighting-misinformation-in-the-time-of-covid-19-one-click-at-a-time]

«The leaders of social media companies have failed to tackle the infodemic of misinformation.» [https://abc7ny.com/5983722]

«Coronavirus briefs: US approves vaccine.» [https://www.brusselstimes.com/news-contents/world/145127/coronavirus-briefs-us-approves-vaccine/]

«Coronavirus briefs begin again at White House.» [https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and- government/pandemic-will-get-worse-before-it-gets-better-trump-says- 2078229/]

Peripheral concept «personal protective equipment and disinfection» is verbalized by PPE, mask, hand sanitizer/sanitizer, sanny, gloves, respirator, forehead thermometer, N95 respirator, remdesivir, ventilator:

«Rideshares and car services are also feeling the corona crunch.» [https://abc7ny.com/5983722/]

«Corona crunch sees bankruptcy applications soar by 75 %.» [https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/07/20/corona-crunch-sees-bankruptcy- applications-soar-by-75/]

The economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have come to be called «coronanomics». Coronanomics—the economic implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This word is formed by mixing words «corona» + «economics». Often we can observe this lexical unit in various headlines in online newspapers, magazines and so on:

«Coronanomics: Eight things we've learnt about how coronavirus will change the economy.» [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/coronanomics-things-learnt-about- how-coronavirus-economy/12106552]

«Understanding Coronanomics: The Economic Implications of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic.» [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3566477]

Thus, after analyzing the peripheral concepts of the coronavirus conceptual framework, we can conclude that they can indeed be classified as peripheral, since the number of verbalizers does not exceed 10 lexical units, we can also note that these lexical units are rarely used in people's lives, many of these words already existed in the language, but expanded the boundaries of their use.

The «coronavirus pandemic» conceptual framework includes a number of different concepts that form a holistic view of the coronavirus pandemic in people's lives. In the course of the discursive analysis we identified the following concepts: the core concept – «COVID as a disease»; concepts of the circumnuclear zone «processes and actions of people during the coronavirus pandemic» and «people during the coronavirus pandemic» with three main sub-concepts: «human behavior during the pandemic»; «people with coronavirus, patients, etc.»; «the authorities during the pandemic» and several peripheral concepts: «media during a pandemic», «personal protective equipment and disinfection» and «pandemic consequences». It should be noted that during the analysis these concepts showed the highest frequency of occurrence and the largest number of verbalizers.