Neologism and Covid-19. Why do we use different terms for the same novel disease?

Term Paper , 2020 , 13 Pages , Grade: 1.0

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

Even though the words "Coronavirus, Covid-19, Rona and Sars-CoV-2" refer to the same disease, they are used in slightly different context throughout the media. This paper will focus on why we use different terms synchronously to refer to one novel disease. Moreover, this paper will have a look at the differences between the words, in which context and how often they are used.

After scanning previous literature concerning this topic, I was able to formulate two hypothesis.
One: The different terms fit different academic levels and are used in distinctive situations. (e.g. "Sars-CoV-2" main use in scientific fields, "Rona" more informal in everyday expressions)
Two: The shorter a word is, the more it is used to refer to the virus.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Literature review

3. Methodology

4. Data analysis and results
4.1 Comparison of appearance
4.2 Collocations

5. Discussion

6. Conclusion

7. Appendix

8. Sources and references

• College: University of Freiburg
• Course: Introduction to Linguistic
• Grade: 1.0
• Publication Year: 2020
• Pages: 13
• Catalog Number: V1161519
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346587916
• ISBN (Book): 9783346587923
• Language: English
• Tags: Covid-19, Sars-Cov2, Corona-Virus, Neologism