Word-formation potential of the noun corona in the German substantive COVID-pandemic vocabulary

This article examines the word-formation capacity of the noun base Corona , the core of the lexical-semantic field Coronavirus pandemic in modern German. It highlights the word-formation dynamics in the bulk of German nouns that are built with the noun stem Corona and are united in a thematic group. About 250 lexemes served as research material. Information on their usage was collected by examining the content presented in lexicographical editions, German news publications, on websites and social networks. The word- formation models of nouns that are currently productive in the German pandemic discourse were identified, with compounding defined as the dominant method of constructing neologisms in the German language. Among productive models the compounds with the noun stem Corona- were singled out; their word building meaning was characterized according to degrees of morpho-semantic motivation. The degree of word-formation activity of the models and affixes, which are productive in the lexical field under analyzes, was determined. Specificity of the usage and frequency level were distinguished; the lexemes that are formed after synonymous models showed semantic and functional differences. It is concluded that word formation of substantives in the time of coronavirus pandemic demonstrates the enhancement of the activity of peripheral word-formation models, in particular, paronomastic pattern.