Introduction: universality and specificity of emotions, with a focus on Russian

Abstract

ABSTRACT An inseparable part of human life, emotions were neglected in the academic discourse in the West for a long time, because scholars juxtaposed them with thought and reason. Yet educational research reveals that emotions are manifestations of high order intelligence and stimulate goal achievement, memory, and motivation in knowledge acquisition. Emotions are culturally and individually shaped. While some cultures consider open demonstration of feelings inappropriate, others perceive unwillingness to reveal emotions as indicators of indifference. These differences are of major importance for understanding contemporary multilingual and multicultural societies. Differences in emotion management between majority and minority cultures may lead to intergroup conflicts. The interrelation between emotions, language and culture emerges in comparative analyses of emotion lexis in different languages. Although all languages contain words expressing positive and negative emotions, idioms, tropes and interjections used to render them vary. There is growing evidence that multilinguals often switch between languages to express their emotions more precisely, adjusting to the communicative situation. Moreover, foreign-language learners often misjudge their interlocutors' attitudes due to the insufficient knowledge of the norms of expressing emotions in the target language. They sometimes fail to predict the consequences of their own utterances, which may cause a communication break-down.