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dc.contributor.authorGoddard, Clifford
dc.contributor.authorWierzbicka, A
dc.date.accessioned2021-03-30T01:29:18Z
dc.date.available2021-03-30T01:29:18Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.identifier.issn2312-9182
dc.identifier.doi10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-1-7-23
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/403497
dc.description.abstractThis study proposes Natural Semantic Metalanguage semantic explications for the English words ‘virus’ (in two senses), ‘bacteria’, ‘germs’, and for the related words ‘sick’, ‘ill’, and ‘disease’. We concentrate on their “naïve” or “folk” meanings (Apresjan 1992) in everyday English, as opposed to scientific or semi-scientific meanings. In this way, the paper makes a start on uncovering the folk epidemiology embedded in the English lexicon. The semantics of words like ‘virus’, ‘bacteria’ and ‘germs’ is not, however, a purely academic matter. It is also a matter of effective health education and health communication. To reach people at a time of an epidemic, explanations need to connect with “ordinary people’s” ways of thinking and speaking. This paper argues that the simple and cross-translatable words of NSM, and minimal languages based on it, can be effective tools not only for linguistic semantics but also for education and communication everywhere - at the local school and in the world at large.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherPeoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
dc.publisher.placeRussian Federation
dc.publisher.urihttp://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/25995
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrom7
dc.relation.ispartofpageto23
dc.relation.ispartofissue1
dc.relation.ispartofjournalRussian Journal of Linguistics
dc.relation.ispartofvolume25
dc.subject.fieldofresearchLinguistics
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode4704
dc.titleSemantics in the time of coronavirus: “Virus”, “bacteria”, “germs”, “disease” and related concepts
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dcterms.bibliographicCitationGoddard, C; Wierzbicka, A, Semantics in the time of coronavirus: “Virus”, “bacteria”, “germs”, “disease” and related concepts, Russian Journal of Linguistics, 2021, 25 (1), pp. 7-23
dcterms.licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.date.updated2021-03-29T23:50:25Z
dc.description.versionVersion of Record (VoR)
gro.rights.copyright© 2021 Goddard C., Wierzbicka A. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorGoddard, Cliff W.


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