Recent phraseological coinages of the COVID-19 period

The spread of COVID-19 worldwide has caused certain processes in almost every language. In particular, in the Russian language, there is a phenomenon of adapting well-known fixed phrases to extra-lingual conditions (namely to the life of the country in quarantine) through their various transformations. It is a range of the transformed fixed phrases thematically related to the topic of coronavirus that have become the subject matter of this article. They have been systematized: a) considering the types of transformations applied to them (cases of structural and semantic transformations (substitution of components of phraseological units, extension of their components using everyday words related to COVID-19, phraseological allusion, contamination), and cases of semantic transformations (change of the meaning of the idiom, extension of its valence and dephraseologisation) have been identified); b) considering the influence of transformations on the semantics of fixed phrases (denotative meaning of occasional figurative units have been either concretized, have acquired new semes, or have been partially or completely deformed; non-figurative fixed phrases implement the meaning which constitutes the sum of the meanings of their components, the connotative meaning of units of any type of semantic connection between the components is enhanced by creating a comic effect, which is achieved by transforming fixed phrases); c) considering the subject: in analysing transformed idioms, a hierarchical classification structure has been used: phraseosemantic series — variant-synonymous group — phraseosemantic field — phraseothematic field — phraseothematic group (the phraseothematic group “COVID-19 Pandemic”, the phraseothematic fields “COVID-19 Disease” and “Human Activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic” have been singled out, which, in turn, have been formed using 11 and 4 phraseosemantic fields, respectively, which have been combined on the basis of integral or differential features into numerous variant-synonymous groups and phraseological series). These fixed phrases constitute the latest occasional phraseological picture of the Russian world. Their fixation and study are important for understanding speech processes in synchrony, in their relationship to the extra-lingual situation. Key words: COVID-19, phraseological unit (FU), transformation, occasionalism, semantics, ideographic analysis.