An analysis on strong memeplexes of Oxford neologisms related to Covid-19开题报告

In this paper, 2020 OED neologisms related toCovid-19 will be analyzed from the perspective of memetics, to explore whichis or are the strong word-forming meme(s) of those neologisms. Further, thispaper will analyze the characteristics of this or those strong meme(s) andsimultaneously explain the reasons for the success of it or them.

Based on neologisms from latest and authorizedupdates related to the most representative phenomenon with the widest spreadand the deepest impact during a short period of time, this analysis hopes toprovides: 1) linguistic references for the timely construction of new wordsto adapt social changes; 2) help for understanding and translatingnon-standard words; 3) methodological inspiration in vocabulary enlarging forEnglish learners.

The paper will be divided into four parts. Chapter one ismainly about the general introduction of research background, significance,objectives and methodology. Chapter two is literature review part includingstudies on memes in language, studies on word-forming of neologisms andsummary. Chapter three is the analysis on word-forming memes of thecollective neologisms, which will be carried out in two forms——singleand compound, and in two types——genotype and phenotype (He [何自然], 2005). Chapter four are findings and conclusions composed ofwhich is or are the strong word-forming meme(s) and the reasons for its ortheir success.

In recent years, great achievements havebeen made by scholars both at home and abroad in the studies on memetics inlanguage as well as word-formation of English neologisms.

1. Studieson memes in linguistics

1.1 Studies on memes in linguistics abroad

As the core of memetics, meme was firstlydefined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976 on the theoretical basis of Neo-Darwinism. He defined it as anapproach to evolutionary models of cultural information transfer (Dawkins,1976). Then Richard Brodie’s book Virus of the Mind (Brodie, 1996) and Aaron Lynch’s book Thought Contagion : How BeliefSpreads Through Society (Lynch, 1996) gave manypowerful examples of how harmful memes spread in society. In 1999, Dawkins’s student Susan Blackmore (1999) comparedmeme with gene as cultural replicator which may define oneculture’s structure or one’s psychological structure inhis book TheMeme Machine.

1.2 Studies on memes in linguistics at home

After sufficient academic discussions among linguists by the turn of 21 century, the translation of “meme” in linguisticsby He [何自然] and He[何雪林] (2003)as “模因” was commonly agreed. In 2005, He went furtherinto the concept of memes in language from the perspectives the significanceof language memes study and the ways and methods of replicating andtransferring language memes (He [何自然]，2005). AndZhang [张旭红] (2008)explored the nature and classification of linguistic memes, and the essentialprerequisites of successful linguistic memes in the process of choice andfitness(Zhang [张旭红],2008). Since then, linguistic memetics has been widely applied into manyfields, such as: 1) teaching, including both traditional and modernmultimedia teaching(Yao [姚晶], 2013); 2) translating,with Ma and Chen holding that standardized translation memes with Chinesecharacteristics should be developed, replicated and widely spread(Ma [马萧]amp;Chen [陈顺意],2014); 3) advertising, including analyzing the memes of advertising sloganand image(Chen [陈琳霞], 2006; Wang [王宁], 2015); 4) wordanalyzing, involving the studies on word-forming memes of neologisms and theirvariations...

Though memetics has received both compliments and criticismsworldwide as Shen (2014) surveyed in 2014, it is still actively applied invarious fields.

2. Studies on word-formation of neologisms

Laurie Bauer (Bauer, 1994) points out that alarge number of neologisms are derived from the vocabulary of English itself, ranking abbreviations, condensing words,compound words and affixes as the first four types of neologisms. Lu Guoqiangand Lu Jidong (1996) lists blending, compounding, acronym, back-formation,conversion, and borrowed words. Zhou Li (2000) heldthat using a variety of traditional word-formation tools is the main methodof word-formation. Wang Yipei (2000) ranked compounding, abbreviation,conversion, black-formation and onomatopoeia as the top six methods, with oldwords with new meaning and loan words accounting for a great proportion. ChenJiansheng (2000) pointed out that Metaphor and borrowing are new features ofword creation in the 20th century while abbreviation was overused. GaoFengjiang (2001) ranks affix, compound transplantation, directtransplantation, direct transplantation and acronym. The study on English morphologyalso reaches the formation of neologisms while historical linguists focusedmore on the forms and characteristics of the evolution of meanings (Yuan [袁宁宁]，2019).

3. Summary

Plenty of studies has been conducted bothin the field of memetics and word-formation of neologisms, however, thecombination of them worth being dug deeper. And this paper will analyze theword-forming memes of 2020 OED neologisms related to Covid-19 from thestructure level in different forms and meaning level in different types.