DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE QUARANTINE IDEATIONS OF UKRAINIANS: A BRIEF REPORT

Abstract

Purpose of the study. Research aims at clarification of linguistic semantics of quarantine concept and how it perceived by Ukrainians.

Design and Methods. Discourse analysis of written quarantine definitions provided by the 104 russian-speaking ethnic Ukrainians (47.1% of women; average age – 41.5). Discovered discourses were classified, quantified and processed with binary logistic regression method.

Results. Covid-19 related quarantine is represented in the linguistic consciousness of russian-speaking Ukrainians by a discursive field, which includes at least seven recognizable, semantically autonomous and interconnected discourses: “Contact restriction”; “Sanitation and hygiene”; “Isolation of infected”; “Virus dissemination”; “Lifestyle changes”; “Bureaucratic response”; “Health preservation”. According to the research results, the listed discourses have been specifically interacting with each other and with some non-discursive factors, which creates the discursive formation of the quarantine concept.

Implications. Established that the actualization of some discourses is accompanied by the deactivation of specific others, what makes quarantine perception one-sided and biased. The results obtained have an important and potentially useful practical application perspective. Thus, effective epidemiological informing should consider discursive features of quarantine semantics for particular ethnic group of people.

Keywords: quarantine, Covid-19, coronavirus, discourse, linguistic semantics, public health.

Accepted: 08.11.2020

Reviewed: 18.11.2020

Published: 01.12.2020

DOI: http://doi.org/10.31108/3.2020.4.3.9