JEZIK I PANDEMIJA KORONAVIRUSA: NEOLOGIZMI U ITALIJANSKOM JEZIKU ŠTAMPE
THE LANGUAGE AND THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: NEOLOGISMS IN THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE OF THE PRESS

Summary/Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, announced by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, brought about changes in different aspects of everyday life. This paper deals with the language change in Italian caused by creating new words, attributing new meanings to already existing words and borrowing loanwords. For this research, the material was collected from the printed and online versions of the daily newspapers Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, published from March 2020 to February 2022. The aim of this paper is to present, describe and systematize the neologisms coined in the Italian newspaper articles covering the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic, both in Italy and worldwide. Regarding lexical neologisms, the collected loanwords borrowed by the Italian language in the 21st century are presented. On the one hand, their meaning is explored while, on the other hand, new words motivated by such loanwords are also analysed. Additionally, attention has been directed to the neologisms not comprising the borrowed lexemes that enriched Italian vocabulary in the 21st century, whereas the abbreviations related to the COVID-19 pandemic have been presented in the last subchapter dedicated to lexical neologisms. In terms of semantic neologisms, the new meanings caused by the coronavirus pandemic were pinpointed. The conducted research has revealed that lexical neologisms are far more numerous than semantic neologisms and that the language of the lexical neologisms displayed greater creativity and productivity. Concerning lexical neologisms, loanwords, as expected, prevail, particularly from English. Since the coronavirus affected the whole world and has become the number one topic in the media worldwide, the leading media outlets being from the Anglo-Saxon world, it was fully expected that the language would be enriched by borrowing newly coined words from the English language. The most frequently used loanword in the corpus is the internationalism covid which, due to its twofold nominal and adjectival function, shows a wide range of usage. Although there are other terms for this virus and the disease it causes (the coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, Covid-19), it can be concluded, based on the conducted research, that the Italian of the daily press preferred the term covid, which was used not only as the name for the disease (la covid), but also primarily as the name for the virus, due to its masculine gender usage (il covid), which is wrong medically speaking since covid is a disease caused by the new virus officially called Sars-CoV-2. Sgroi (2020) notes that the masculine gender usage is more frequent, which the corpus confirms. The acronym Covid has an adjectival value in many two-part noun compounds of the noun + Covid type. Such compounds are indicative of the social changes caused by the pandemic and, depending on the meaning of the lexeme Covid, they can be divided into two semantic groups. The first group includes the compounds in which Covid means the disease or the virus (e.g., malati covid, tampone Covid). In such examples, that lexeme determines the nouns standing for: a) the people affected by the disease (e.g., malati covid, pazienti Covid-19), b) the people treating the disease (e.g., medico Covid, infermiera Covid), c) the place for treating the disease (e.g., reparti Covid, ambulanza Covid, clinica Covid), d) the means of diagnosing the viral infection (e.g., test Covid, tampone Covid), e) the measures adopted to combat Covid (e.g., quarantena Covid, vaccino Covid), f) the consequences caused by Covid (e.g., morti Covid, vittime Covid). The second group includes the compounds in which Covid has the meaning ‘’during the covid pandemic’’. This group consists of the compounds in which Covid determines the nouns referring to the state of emergency (e.g., emergenza Covid-19), the nouns related to a set of measures introduced for the sake of recovery from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic (e.g., fondi Covid, sussidi Covid), as well as the nouns concerning different spheres of life in the newly developed situation (e.g., Natale Covid, scuola Covid). The examples in which the head of the syntagm is preceded by the constituent determining it more closely are borrowed from the English language and there are not many of them in the corpus. The corpus also contains the compound Covid free (Covidfree) borrowed from English. According to the Nuovo Devoto‒Oli 2022 dictionary, this compound means ‘’without Covid’’. In Italian, this loanword has an adjectival value, it is preceded by nouns and it indicates that there are no people affected by the COVID-19 in a particular place or in a certain environment (Devoto and Oli 2022). The analysis of the corpus has revealed that this compound is most frequently used with nouns denoting geographical terms, institutions and catering facilities (e.g., Basilicata Covid free, ristoranti Covid free, ospedale Covid-free, or scuola Covid free). It is also used with nouns standing for the events in which there is no risk from the viral infection (e.g., festa Covid free). This compound can be preceded by nouns as well denoting means of transportation (e.g. Frecciarossa Covid free). Italian has also borrowed the anglicism Long Covid which accounts for the consequences of the COVID-19 concerning those people who have gone through the acute phase of the disease. This loanword can be used with a nominal or an adjectival value, for instance: sindrome long Covid, incubo long Covid, pazienti long Covid, effetti long-Covid, or ambulatorio Long Covid. As regards the neologisms created by means of prefixes, the conducted research has revealed that the prefixes extra-, non-, anti-, pre- and post- are very productive in the Italian language of the daily press. The prefixes extra- and non- are used as prefixes for the lexeme Covid. The resulting prefixed words mean ‘’not related to the disease or the virus’’ (e.g., casi non Covid) or ‘’not related to the covid pandemic period’’ (e.g., esami extra Covid). Based on the examined corpus, it can be noticed that the prefix anti-showed a high degree of productivity in the Italian of the daily press, which is fully expected since in the newspaper articles a lot of attention was dedicated to the measures introduced to prevent the coronavirus from spreading (e.g., piano anti-Covid), as well as to opposing the implementation of the measures adopted to combat Covid-19 (e.g., protesta anti lockdown). The prefixed words containing the prefixes pre- and post-, referring to the period before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, are also found in the corpus. Based on the conducted research, it can be noticed that the prefix post- is more productive than the prefix pre- and that the prefixed words containing the prefix post- modify nouns referring to different spheres of life, such as work, transport, restaurant and food service industry, tourism, recovery (e.g., lavoro post pandemia, vacanze post Covid). As for the loanwords that can be found in the newspaper articles about the coronavirus pandemic, a distinction should be made between the loanwords borrowed for this very purpose from the English language – such as covid but also no mask – which are new in English as well due to their relation to the current situation, and the loanwords that are not new either in English or Italian – such as the lexeme vax i.e., no vax – which have already been used for several years denoting the same meaning, but their usage has increased significantly due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccination against Covid-19 has led to the creation of Ni vax and Boh vax, based on the no vax formation model. Interestingly enough, the neologism Zoom showed a high degree of productivity. This one differs from other neologisms because it actually represents the very name of the platform, which became world famous only when the pandemic began, and it has not been recorded yet in the most popular Italian dictionaries (Treccani, Devoto and Oli, Zingarelli). The introduction of Covid passes in Israel, as one of the measures adopted to combat Covid19, has led to the Italian media borrowing the loanword green pass / Green Pass. It was only later that this loanword stood for Covid passes in other countries as well, including Italy, and due to the unstable epidemiological situation the Italian government introduced a new type of sanitary pass in December 2021; thus, the Italian adjective rafforzato i.e., the prefix super- of Latin origin was added to the loanword green pass, resulting in the syntagms Green Pass rafforzato and Super Green Pass. The corpus includes the anglicism passenger locator form, as well as the pseudoanglicism near working. The former loanword represents a digital travel data form completed by travelers prior to entering certain countries. Its abbreviation Plf is also used in the examined texts. The pseudo-anglicism near working stands for the possibility of working near the place where one lives. As the analysis shows, only a few examples have been noted regarding the compounds and the collocations not comprising the loanwords borrowed in the 21th century. In particular, the two-part noun compound nave quarantena, as well as the collocations consisting of nouns and adjectives, such as nuova normalità, zona rossa, zona arancione, zona gialla and zona bianca. The compound nave quarantena stands for the cruisers which, pursuant to the Civil Protection Code of April 12, 2020, are used as quarantine for migrants arriving in Italy. Even though a ten-day isolation was stipulated by the law, the duration of the isolation period could be prolonged e.g., due to the insufficient number of vacancies in reception centres. The collocation nuova normalità accounts for a new situation in everyday life people return to after quarantine, but in which Covid protection measures have to be implemented. The collocations consisting of the noun zona and adjectives denoting colours refer to the distribution of COVID-19 cases in Italian regions and to the measures introduced, in compliance with the decisions of the Italian government, to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. It should be mentioned that zona rossa and zona gialla represent semantic neologisms since they stood for the zones Genoa was divided into during the G8 meeting in 2001. Based on the analysed corpus, it can be noticed that Italian vocabulary connected with the COVID-19 pandemic has been enriched by the creation of new abbreviations as well. The newspaper articles about the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting changes in everyday life include the abbreviations such as PNRR, Usca, or dad. The abbreviation PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) refers to the investment program introduced by the EU member states in April 2021 within the economic recovery program established in July 2020 in order to support the economy of the EU countries, whereas the abbreviation Usca (Unità speciali di continuità assistenziale) was used with the meaning of special health units comprising health professionals and treating the patients with mild Covid symptoms at home in every region. The examined corpus also contains the formation nucleus based on the abbreviation dad. Here, the prefixed words meaning ‘’opposing distance learning’’ have been noticed in the corpus. Apart from the acronym dad, such prefixed words comprise the prefixes no- or anti- (e.g., studenti No-Dad, protesta anti Dad). The prefixed word pro Dad, the antonym of the prefixed words no Dad and anti Dad, was noticed as well (e.g., genitori Pro Dad). As far as the frequency of neologisms related to this topic is concerned, the analysed corpus has revealed that semantic neologisms are far less numerous than lexical neologisms; thus, only a few examples have been noted, those borrowed from English – such as the semantic neologisms hub, open day and last minute – being more numerous, as is the case with lexical neologisms. The anglicism hub means the busiest international airport in the country. Once the COVID-19 pandemic started, it assumed another meaning as well. It is also used with the meaning of a big room in which Covid testing or vaccination is carried out. The loanword Open day was previously used to denote the day when institutions admit visitors interested in obtaining some information. During the pandemic, it assumed the meaning of the day when vaccination is supposed to be carried out. The adjective positivo has a new meaning as well. Bonomi and Piotti (5) note that this adjective also stands for the person who has developed antibodies in response to the COVID-19 infection becoming (partly) immune to the virus. The anglicism recovery fund in the Italian language was borrowed in 2009 and it denotes the financial means for providing assistance to the economic system (regional, national, international) affected by a crisis or emergency situation. It is noted in the Nuovo Devoto‒Oli 2022 dictionary that this syntagm has assumed a new meaning in the language of the media. Recovery fund also refers to the fund established by the European Union in order to support the economic recovery of the member states after the crisis caused by the pandemic. The anglicism last minute occurs in the corpus along with the lexeme vaccino, thus vaccinazione, so as to account for receiving a vaccine against the COVID-19 immediately prior to the entry into force of a certain decree or measure regarding obligatory vaccination for the purposes of going to work, school and so on.

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