THE TRANSLATOR-INTERPRETER EXPERIENTIAL COMPLEX IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SYNCHRONIC LEXICOLOGY. COVIDIDIOMA IN EUROPEAN AND LATINAMERICAN SPANISH AFTER THE FIRST YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

This paper offers insights into the analysis of the Spanish language lexis associated with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic and the correlated COVID-19 disease within the translator-interpreter experiential complex. The analysis is based on synchronic lexicology during the first and most dynamic year of the pandemic. With the onset of the need to name new realities, situations, or objects, the lexis, as a highly dynamic part of living language, has produced a myriad of neologisms and nonce words, the development and use of which we review. The article comments on the origin and use of some of the most important lexemes that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic in its early days and is focused on the word-formation processes of composition and derivation within the lexis of the language and their products. The study also illustrates, through graphs, the increased need to communicate new realities, thus underlining the importance of following the changes in vocabulary. Among other things, this paper also explains the processes of intellectualisation and internationalisation of the language, as well as the determinologisation and deneologisation of lexical units and their further shifts within the vocabulary structure. In hindsight, the dynamic nature of the reactions within the most variable part of a living language reminds us of the importance of cultivating the experiential complex, systematising knowledge, and expanding and consolidating the vocabulary of translators and interpreters.