New Verbal Lexemes of the Word-Formative Family with a Base “Corona” in the German Vocabulary of the Pandemic Period: Structural and Semantic Analysis

Abstract

The article considers the structural and semantic peculiarities of German colloquial verbs, which belong to the word formation family with the base “Corona”. The article analyzes the lexemes formed during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic from October 2019 to May 2021. In the course of the study new verbs not listed in the lexicographical sources have been found. The majority of these verbal lexemes are occasional: they are identified by small frequencies and only function within the framework of certain types of text in the Internet discourse (blogs, Twitter, social networks). The author specifies the meaning of some verbs entered in the lexicographical base of the Leibniz-Institute for German Language (OWID.de). The author describes both the formal and the lexical-semantic structures of verbal lexemes, considers their word-forming and lexical-semantic relations that combine the motivating noun “corona” and derived words. The study characterizes the models of building the colloquial verbal lexemes, which are currently productive and highly active in the context of the German “coronavirus discourse”. The study proves that the German vocabulary expanded at the time of Covid-19 pandemic through the suffixal word-forming models and the formation of verbs with prepositional and adverbial particles. The study shows that the models of the formation of verbal units with prepositional and adverbial components are particularly active, while the prefixal models are not active in the formation of verbs with the component “Corona”. The author analyzes examples of the use of the lexemes in context, which are presented in the text corpus of the Google search system, determines the frequency of the verbal units. The article clearly shows the differences in the meaning and functioning of verbal lexemes. The article notes some peculiarities of their lexical compatibility.