Analyzing the Process of Coining New Words and Terms Related to the Corona Disease: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The present study analyzed and described the process of coining new words and terms related to the Corona disease, which has recently been faced by the international community. Official news agencies and websites in both Persian and English languages, such as IRNA, ISNA, Khabar Online, BBC and CNN, were the most important sources of data collection. In addition, some online dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster, Oxford, Longman, Cambridge and Urban were used. The factors of age, gender and level of education were not considered in the present study, and the research method was descriptive-analytical as well. Word-formation processes for the research data, which consisted of 152 words and terms, included derivation, compounding, compounding and derivation, coinage, abbreviation, shortening, acronym, blending, and borrowing. Then the coined phrases (syntactic groups) were classified into two types of noun and adjective. The findings showed that the formation of syntactic groups with 72% and the process of blending with 33% had the highest percentage of occurrence in Persian and English, respectively. The results of the present study can help linguists in measuring the generativity of word-formation processes in the face of natural events and, subsequently, social changes.

Keywords

• word-formation processes
• corona
• coinage
• words