THE LINGUOCULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COVID-19 NEOLOGISMS IN UZBEK NEWSPAPER PUBLICATIONS THROUGH A DIACHRONIC CORPUS.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, officially declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, marked a transformative moment in global history, reshaping not only public health systems but also the linguistic landscapes of societies worldwide. As the virus spread, it brought with it an urgent need to communicate new concepts, policies, and experiences, resulting in a surge of neologisms—newly coined words or phrases that encapsulate emerging realities. These neologisms, ranging from scientific terms like coronavirus to social constructs like social distancing, became integral to public discourse, reflecting the interplay between language, culture, and crisis. In Uzbekistan, a nation with a rich linguistic heritage rooted in Turkic traditions and a history of cultural synthesis, the pandemic prompted a unique linguistic response, particularly evident in newspaper publications. These publications, as primary channels of information dissemination, played a pivotal role in introducing and normalizing COVID-19-related neologisms, embedding them within the Uzbek language and its cultural context [1].