Le lexique de la pandémie et ses variantes

[Autom. eng. transl.] The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has determined an extraordinary discursive proliferation in all the societies it has affected and, consequently, in many languages, some of which are represented in this thematic issue on The lexicon of the pandemic and its variants. This collection is therefore part of a debate which is already quite broad and follows on from number 24 of Repères-Dorif, edited by Françoise Favart and Alida M. Silletti, whose title, Discursive constellations in times of pandemic, testifies discursive approaches centered around Covid-19. In the same vein, we recall publications concerning the infodemic caused by pandemic communication such as, among others, #Zona Rossa. Il Covid-19 tra infodemia e comunicazione (Alfonso & Comin, 2020), L’altro virus. Comunicazione e disinformazione al tempo del Covid-19 (Sala & Scaglioni, 2020), and the very recent issue of Argumentation and Discourse Analysis, on Legitimacy and authority put to the test: the first speeches on the coronavirus (Amossy & Wahnich, 2022). As in all periods of crisis, in a very short time, linguistic resources were mobilized to respond to the urgency of naming this almost unprecedented phenomenon. The scientific terms already available in the language describing the symptoms, the characteristics of the virus and its consequences (source of infection, screening, zoonosis, etc.) slip into the common lexicon, while new terms are created to express concepts and notions absent from dictionaries by using internal French language resources (re/deconfinement, vaccinodrome, teleworking), but also borrowing (cluster, tracking, super spreader) and tracing (zero patient, social distancing) . This lexical creativity which also exploits the semantic potential of the common lexicon (confinement, mask, unmask, etc.) goes well beyond the "needs" of naming, which manifests itself in a massive way in ironic or even diverted expressions as soon as the speakers appropriate the concept and the context (velorution, balconying, infodemic, etc.). These lexies, sometimes whimsical, are also linked to the particularly neologous contexts of appearance of which they often bear the trace (skypero, whatspero, e-pero, zoompero, zoomveillon). The repertoires of Covid 19 words are now multiplying on paper such as, for example, Les mots du coronavirus (Duhamel & Bigorgne, 2020), Le Dicorona (Auroy 2020), Le Dicovid (Coppens & Kroll, 2021), whereas they had appeared on the Web from the first months of the pandemic, as well as numerous spontaneous or institutional glossaries, such as Le parole del Coronavirus and the Glossario Covid-19, drawn up by Eurac Research and by the Linguistic Bureau of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, or the Dicovid of words invented by Internet users published in Le Robert online. It is in this interest for "pandemic" words that this issue of Repères DoRiF falls, entirely focused on the study of the lexicon, whether it comes from the specialized field or from general language, in line with the more properly lexicological studies of which we can cite, among others, L'epidemia. Le parole e l’interpretazione delle parole (Malagnini, 2020), La lingua infetta. L’italiano della pandemia (Pietrini, 2021), The words of Covid 19 (Pennec, 2021), Word che non c’erano. La lingua e le lingue nel contesto della pandemia (Pollicino & Zanot, 2021). This collection aims to better understand how the vocabulary linked to the coronavirus is created and disseminated, by following several perspectives: among other things, by comparing this vocabulary, forging