| dc.description.abstract | The COVID-19 pandemic brought about global changes to everyday life. This thesis
investigates the emergence of neologisms in the English language in response to these
changes. By collecting data from social media, specialized dictionaries, and other digital
sources, a list of COVID-19 neologisms was compiled. The study firstly aims to identify the
most prevalent morphological processes and domains involved in the formation of these new
terms. Secondly, this study aims to compare two well-known frameworks within
morphology: item-and-arrangement and item-and-process. The resulting list of neologisms
consisted of a total of 917 items, wherein the predominant domain was pop-culture at 38.2%,
whilst compounding was the most prevalent process at 72.2%. This study finds that the
English language has adopted a multitude of new words in response to the COVID-19
pandemic, that they are sourced predominantly from cultural trends and media, and that their
processes reflect a preference for morphological creativity. This study also finds that IA is
and effective model for analysing basic morphological structures, whilst IP is shown as more
flexible in its ability to analyse irregular morphological structures (such as blends). | |