Semantics and Pragmatics of Expressing Anxiety and Concern in Russian and English: Linguacultural Approach

The article explores the semantics and pragmatics of expressing anxiety and concern in Russian and English film dialogues from a linguacultural perspective. Emotions such as worry and care are viewed not as spontaneous reactions but as culturally patterned communicative acts shaped by norms of politeness and emotional display. Drawing on examples from Russian and English films produced between the 1990s and the 2020s, the study identifies and compares the lexical, idiomatic, and pragmatic means used to express anxiety and concern. The analysis reveals that Russian discourse is characterized by emotional openness, hyperbolic idioms, and a strong orientation toward solidarity and sincerity, whereas English discourse favors restraint, conventionalized politeness formulas, and mitigation strategies reflecting autonomy and self-control. Despite these differences, both languages fulfill the same universal communicative functions of empathy and reassurance. The findings contribute to cross-cultural pragmatics, translation studies, and foreign language pedagogy by emphasizing the importance of linguacultural awareness in interpreting emotional speech acts. The aim of the present research is to identify and compare the linguistic and pragmatic means used to express anxiety and concern in Russian and English film dialogues. The object of the study is the verbal communication of emotional states in cinematic discourse, while the subject is the system of linguistic markers and pragmatic strategies that convey worry and concern in Russian and English. The hypothesis of the research is that the expression of these emotions reflects the broader cultural models of politeness and emotional regulation characteristic of each language community: Russian speakers tend to verbalize concern directly and emotionally, whereas English speakers often employ mitigated or conventionalized forms of expression.

linguacultural pragmatics, emotion expression, anxiety, inter-cultural communication, film dialogue, emotional expression, politeness, empathy, cinematic discourse, concern