LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND HIGHER EDUCATION TERMINOLOGY DURING AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The article aims to define the lexical and semantic features of the English education (school and higher education) terminology in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and postpandemic. The semantic changes that occurred in the meaning structure of the English school and higher education terms analysed in the paper were considered within the classification developed by Oxford English Dictionary lexicographers. According to this classification, all the words having undergone semantic changes during the pandemic of COVID-19 can be divided into four groups: new words, new sub-entries, updated sub-entries, and additions to unrevised entries. In the framework of this classification the author brings and analyzes examples of school and higher education terms for each group. As a result, it is proved that the English school and higher education terminology has acquired a number of features (semantic shifts, lexical and semantic variance, territorial variance) during and after the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed framework may be useful for studying and teaching lexicology, terminology, sociolinguistics, cross-cultural communication. The research findings may contribute to compiling special dictionaries of education terms.