<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The novel coronavirus (SAR-COV-2) and its attendant respiratory disease, COVID-19, said to have originated in Wuhan, China in December, 2019 has become a global concern with far-reaching impact on all facets of human life. Its impact on the English language can be seen in the emergence of new forms of expressions, extension of the meaning of existing words and the resuscitation of hitherto not commonly used expressions. A number of these innovations and usages affect the English language generally, yet language use is context-bound revealing the cultural realities of its users and their environment so that language at all times exhaustively catalogues the things, events and processes in its environment of use (Carrol, 1966:102). This study adopts the Functionalist Approach to investigate the linguistic impact of COVID-19 discourse on the Nigerian variety of the English language using data from <italic>Nairaland</italic>, an online Nigerian forum. It establishes that COVID-19 pandemic has informed new Englishes in Nigerian English by way of morphemic coinages, phrasal restructuring, syntactic composition, semantic broadening, lexical resuscitation and acronymic coinages.</p>
</abstract>

The novel coronavirus (SAR-COV-2) and its attendant respiratory disease, COVID-19, said to have originated in Wuhan, China in December, 2019 has become a global concern with far-reaching impact on all facets of human life. Its impact on the English language can be seen in the emergence of new forms of expressions, extension of the meaning of existing words and the resuscitation of hitherto not commonly used expressions. A number of these innovations and usages affect the English language generally, yet language use is context-bound revealing the cultural realities of its users and their environment so that language at all times exhaustively catalogues the things, events and processes in its environment of use (Carrol, 1966:102). This study adopts the Functionalist Approach to investigate the linguistic impact of COVID-19 discourse on the Nigerian variety of the English language using data from Nairaland, an online Nigerian forum. It establishes that COVID-19 pandemic has informed new Englishes in Nigerian English by way of morphemic coinages, phrasal restructuring, syntactic composition, semantic broadening, lexical resuscitation and acronymic coinages.

Epidemics and Language Rejuvenation: The Emergence and Use of New English Forms in the Covid-19 Pandemic Nigeria

Journal of Language and Cultural Education

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The novel coronavirus (SAR-COV-2) and its attendant respiratory disease, COVID-19, said to have originated in Wuhan, China in December, 2019 has become a...

Epidemics and Language Rejuvenation: The Emergence and Use of New English Forms in the Covid-19 Pandemic Nigeria

Publicado en línea: 01 mar 2023

Páginas: 42 - 55

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2022-0009

Palabras clave
COVID-19, Language resuscitation, New Englishes, Functionalist Approach, Nigerian English

© 2022 Onyebuchi Nwosu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Epidemics and Language Rejuvenation: The Emergence and Use of New English Forms in the Covid-19 Pandemic Nigeria

Publicado en línea: 01 mar 2023

Páginas: 42 - 55

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2022-0009

Palabras claveCOVID-19, Language resuscitation, New Englishes, Functionalist Approach, Nigerian English

© 2022 Onyebuchi Nwosu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Palabras clave
COVID-19, Language resuscitation, New Englishes, Functionalist Approach, Nigerian English