CREATIVE RESPONSES TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN LITHUANIA: FROM NEOLOGISMS TO REINTERPRETATION OF FOLKLORE
Abstract
Background. The coronavirus pandemic that reached Lithuania in the early spring of 2020 left its mark on language as well. The emergence of neologisms and new phrases was observed during the first weeks of the quarantine, which was imposed in mid-March 2020. Methods. The authors of the article reveal the manifestations of linguistic creativity observed during the pandemic. The continuously updated Database of Lithuanian Neologisms and various online resources are used to study the words and phrases that are used in Lithuania, both orally and in writing, to describe the coronavirus pandemic, and the worldview and emotional attitude of the Lithuanian people that emerges from the neologisms of the period. The primary focus here lies on Lithuanian neologisms, and compound words and blends in particular. Some cases of individual, often occasional word formation and more popular neologisms from the Database of Lithuanian Neologisms are discussed separately. The main ways of making new formations and the most popular lexemes behind the new formations are presented as well. Linguistic methods used in this article are: 1) descriptive method; 2) semantic analysis; 3) structural analysis; 4) cultural interpretation method and 5) statistical method. Results. Analysis of the Lithuanian neologisms that appeared during the pandemic, a.k.a. coronalogisms, shows that most of them are nouns. In terms of formation, the neologisms are dominated by compounds; as far as the frequency of lexemes is concerned, most of them have the root koron- // coron-. The linguistic creativity of Lithuanian language users during the pandemic was not limited to just coining neologisms: new interpretations of the national history, language, and folklore traditions have appeared, and various elements of the national and world culture were involved in the language games. Visual content has been added to the language games and linguistic creativity as a response of caricaturists, social ad designers, and other creative people to the realities of the pandemic. Conclusions. Analysis of the examples of new formations and other cases of linguistic creativity was employed to demonstrate how unexpected changes in life spark linguistic creativity that combines contemporary experience and cultural tradition of the language community.
