{"title":"The Dynamics of Language: A Linguistic Analysis of the Framing of COVID-19 in Eswatini","authors":"Phindile G. Dlamini","doi":"10.1080/10228195.2022.2067215","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract COVID-19 has drastically disrupted the lives of many people globally, and the havoc it has wreaked has shattered world economies. The effects of COVID-19 in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) are threatening the very foundations of the country. Referenced in the national language, its effects manifest in the perceptions and experiences shared among Swazis (emaSwati) about the scourge. This article investigates the pandemic's impact on Swati (siSwati) and the ways in which Swazis adapted their language-related tropes in the face of unprecedented social and economic disruptions. Data are drawn from government briefings, news bulletins, media interviews and addresses. The findings demonstrate that COVID-19 has produced neologisms and expressions that index Swazis cultural views. While a morpho-syntactic analysis of the neologisms demonstrates that they derive from varied word-building mechanisms and exhibit COVID-19's distinctive characteristics of transmissibility, pathology, and annihilation, the measures to contain COVID-19 are presented aesthetically to dispel the anxiety associated with the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":43882,"journal":{"name":"Language Matters","volume":"53 1","pages":"23 - 45"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language Matters","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2022.2067215","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract COVID-19 has drastically disrupted the lives of many people globally, and the havoc it has wreaked has shattered world economies. The effects of COVID-19 in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) are threatening the very foundations of the country. Referenced in the national language, its effects manifest in the perceptions and experiences shared among Swazis (emaSwati) about the scourge. This article investigates the pandemic's impact on Swati (siSwati) and the ways in which Swazis adapted their language-related tropes in the face of unprecedented social and economic disruptions. Data are drawn from government briefings, news bulletins, media interviews and addresses. The findings demonstrate that COVID-19 has produced neologisms and expressions that index Swazis cultural views. While a morpho-syntactic analysis of the neologisms demonstrates that they derive from varied word-building mechanisms and exhibit COVID-19's distinctive characteristics of transmissibility, pathology, and annihilation, the measures to contain COVID-19 are presented aesthetically to dispel the anxiety associated with the pandemic.
期刊介绍：
The purpose of Language Matters is to provide a journal of international standing with a unique African flavour focusing on multilingualism in Africa. Although the journal contributes to the language debate on all African languages, sub-Saharan Africa and issues related to multilingualism in the southern African context are the journal’s specific domains. The journal seeks to promote the dissemination of ideas, points of view, teaching strategies and research on different aspects of African languages, providing a forum for discussion on the whole spectrum of language usage and debate in Africa. The journal endorses a multidisciplinary approach to the study of language and welcomes contributions not only from sociolinguists, psycholinguists and the like, but also from educationalists, language practitioners, computer analysts, engineers or scholars with a genuine interest in and contribution to the study of language. All contributions are critically reviewed by at least two referees. Although the general focus remains on multilingualism and related issues, one of the three issues of Language Matters published each year is a special thematic edition on Language Politics in Africa. These special issues embrace a wide spectrum of language matters of current relevance in Southern Africa.
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