#4167. Social and Physical Distance/Distancing: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Recent Changes in Usage

September 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Language and Linguistics;
Linguistics and Language;
Computer Science Applications;
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Abstract:
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and its dramatic spread in the early months of 20XX, the term social distancing has rapidly become a key term in public and private discourse. At the same time, social distance, physical distance and physical distancing have become current in the same context. This paper examines these terms in (samples of) four corpora of British English (BNC, ukWaC, NOW 20XX and NOW 20XX), with the following aims: (i) to study the frequency and usage of these phrases in corpora of different kinds, representing texts created both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic; (ii) to determine whether the recent spread of the phrases in the Covid-19 context has entailed any shifts in the collocational profile of the constituent words. By looking at the most frequent collocations over time we establish to what extent the corpora reflect stability and change in patterning and to what extent the external factor of the pandemic outbreak has far reaching consequences for the lexical semantics of the language.
Keywords:
Covid-19; Physical distance/distancing; Semantic change; Social distance/distancing

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