A discourse dynamics exploration of terminology for Covid-19 in professional and public discourse

Abstract

Abstract This study identified terminology used in academia and media relating to Covid-19 and traced its development across 20 months from a discourse dynamics perspective. The cross-corpus comparison identified significant differences between the two corpora in the use of terminology relating to Covid-19, thereby signaling the particularities of the two communities towards the same social event. The dynamic analysis reveals a non-linear trajectory in the use of terminology in both corpora and an evolving developmental pattern in the construction of the specialized text. The analysis shows that the use of terminology evolves with social change, which can contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of terminology development. Methodologically, this study further demonstrates the viability of discourse dynamic approaches in analyzing the linguistic features of a social event.