Verbalization of the narrative “Coronavirus Pandemic”: lexical and semantic aspects (based on the information portal BBC news)

Abstract

The present scientific study reveals the results of research of the English online news discourse with reference to its narrative features. In particular, it seeks to establish the lexico-semantic verbalization of the narrative «Coronavirus Pandemic» as it is presented on the webpages of the information portal BBC news. Techniques of unfolding global narratives, one of which is purportedly that of the coronavirus disease pandemic, as well as shaping aspired frames in the addressees’ consciousness via lexico-semantic language means appear to be dramatically under-researched what enhances the pertinence of their study. The object of our study – the narrative «Coronavirus Pandemic» is deemed as a structured event exhibited in a certain sequence of its stages’ evolving and conditioned by spatial and temporal circumstances and particular standpoint.The investigation has shown that the narrative in question had been forming and occurring on the information portal BBC news in accord with a network principle of information arrangement which postulates that headlines should be linked by some common event while retaining independence from one another. The results of the study indicate the following narrative structure of consecutive stages of the core event «a viral pneumonia SARS-CoV-2 outbreak»: inception and global spread of the viral disease; disease statistics and unprecedented quarantine restrictions; economic, social, psychological and cultural implications of the quarantine; urgency and rates of vaccination; changes in real-world scene perception while living under «long Covid». Lexico-semantic analysis of the empirical material testified to lexemes of a particular part of speech being used as a mirror of logic and semantic set of conditions of speech communication: nouns and verbs tend to convey societal dynamic reaction to the existential challenge as well as place certain phenomena in the limelight; adjectives subjectivize the description of events; numerals are leveraged in disease statistics and lethal cases records. The semantic content of the emotionally loaded vocabulary with both positive and negative connotation is established to suggest the exact character of conceptualization of the studied narrative.