Name it till you mean it: Intersections between formal and semantic neological procedures in naming emerging pandemic objects in Spanish

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between formal and semantic neological procedures in the coinage of COVID-19-related emerging realities. Our study is based on a survey conducted to elicit the spontaneous creation of neologisms in Spanish related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were asked to name a set of pandemic-related objects presented to them in a set of pictures. Naming strategies resulted mostly from the intersection of metonyms with compounding and metaphors with syntagmation. Participants preferred metonymy-based strategies to name objects they have fewer clues to identify. On the other hand, objects resulting from the adaptation of pre-existing items were mostly named using metaphors. • Speakers tend to use existing words to name non-totally new objects, and new words for new objects. • There are significant correlations between compounding and metonymy and between syntagmation and metaphors. • Age cannot be established as a source of variation in the coinage of new words. • Metonyms are used to close wider cognitive gaps, whereas metaphors are preferred to frame familiar concepts.