HOW HAS THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AFFECTED OUR USE OF LANGUAGE? A corpus-based study of neologisms and semantic shifts in English and Chinese web texts

Abstract

This study examined how COVID-19 has affected the use of language, especially English and Chinese neologisms, semantic shifts, and their relationship with Hofstede cultural dimension theory. A corpus-based study was conducted. Four English corpora and two Chinese corpora of web texts were investigated in order to detect the new words and terms appearing after 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak took place. Three sets of COVID-related English new words and terms were found: name-related, policy-related, and other-related words. Chinese new words and terms found here more describe new things created after COVID-19. Additionally, results showed that some COVID-related new words and terms emerged regionally. The countries where certain new words appeared frequently have unique cultural dimensions compared to other nations.