Analysis of COVID-19 Name Varieties in Chinese Mass and Social Media

Hongjie Dong, Minli Zhou, Dewei Che, Huiying Zhang and Adams Bodomo
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Hongjie Dong: School of Liberal Arts, Xi’an University, Xi’an 710065, China
Minli Zhou: Department of Liberal Arts, Guangdong University of Education, Guangzhou 510303, China
Dewei Che: Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Huiying Zhang: School of Liberal Arts, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an 710062, China
Adams Bodomo: Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: The sudden appearance of a new epidemic disease in China created the need for names identifying that disease. Between December 2019 and January 2020, a variety of severe pneumonia-related disease names suddenly appeared, and more name varieties kept coming up afterwards. To better understand the introduction and spread of these names, 16 different COVID-19-related name varieties were selected covering the period from the end of December 2019, when the epidemic started, to mid-March 2020, a moment at which the term competition had stabilized. By way of big data analysis, the initiation and distribution of the 16 names across the media landscape was traced with regard to the impact of different media platforms, while the distribution frequency of each of the selected terms was mapped, resulting in a distinction of three groups of disease names, each with a different media and time profile. The results were discussed based on the hypotheses of disease confusion by name variety and management failures in absence of clear language governance at the national and global levels. The analysis of the data led to a refutation of both hypotheses. Based on this discussion, the study offers empirically based suggestions for the WHO in their naming practices and further research.

Keywords: COVID-19; severe viral pneumonia; new coronavirus epidemic; disease name varieties; distribution across media; usage timelines; daily frequencies; word forms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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