Néologismes expressifs et ludiques dans le vocabulaire de la pandémie

The Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to a number of playful or expressive lexical creations. This article focuses on this type of innovation with the aim to: account for the processes of lexical creation involved; document the contexts in which these lexical items first appear and the interaction (WINTER-FROEMEL 2016) thereby generated; estimate the uptake of these neologisms, from hapax to widespread usage. To identify neologisms in their context, use was made of the Néoveille platform with its large corpus sourced from contemporary press. As several authors have pointed out (RENNER 2015; LÉTURGIE 2015; SABLAYROLLES 2015b), this study shows that compounding, especially hybrids and blends, are particularly used to convey playful and expressive features.