Language Interaction Against the Background of Global Crises
Language Interaction Against the Background of Global Crises

Summary/Abstract: The XXI century is marked by stormy events enveloping developed countries of the world. Economic, political, social crises, elections, wars, refugees – all these are the problems of the last decades. The media, the Internet in particular, contribute to sharing information by nations, which both integrates and disintegrates them. Globalization has become the process of worldwide unification. Against this background language interaction proves to be quite a logical and predictable phenomenon. Events occurring in one country reverberate round the entire world, due to which not only the information field is extended but also the word stock of languages is constantly enriched. The English language being the language of international communication is a mighty means of spreading information and hence it participates in replenishing languages. The reverse process is also in full swing. The political crisis in Great Britain is reflected by the now popular noun Brexit, which brought forth the appearance of a number of similar nouns, representing the idea of a centrifugal force (Irexit, Nexit, Calexit, Amerexit, etc.) Social and political crises in different countries of the world are reflected in the element -gate, which has had a decades-long history, originating from the political scandal connected with the US President R. Nixon (1972-1974). The semi-affix -gate constantly coins new words in different languages to denote a critical situation, a scandal (Irangate, Camillagate, Moggigate, Onishchenkogate, etc.) The immigration crisis in Europe provided the metaphor “jungle”, by which unbearable conditions of life in a refugee camp near Calais (France) were named. The origins of the present meaning of the Ukrainian noun “maidan” and of the newly coined Russian word “Krymnush”, both words being widely used by the world media, go back to the crucial events of the Revolution of Dignity of 2014 in Ukraine and to the same year annexation of the Crimea by Russia. Both these events to a great extent affect the state of political and economic affairs in the world. Some other new words mentioned in the article have become an integral part of different languages’ word stock, which reveals that global crises always prove to be rich soil for language interaction.

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