A Cultural Semantic and Ethnopragmatic Analysis of the Russian Praise Words Molodec and Umnica (with reference to English and Chinese)

Abstract

The Russian words 'molodec' (roughly, "fine fellow") and 'umnica' (roughly, "good/clever boy/girl") belong to a class of vocabulary that can be labelled as "praise words" in English and 'poxvala' "praise" in Russian. Praise can be defined, roughly, as a verbal expression that gives a positive evaluation of someone's action or quality, or of a person in general. Praise embeds the idea that a person's action or quality surpasses the norm or normal expectations. It also involves a component of a positive emotional attitude. Praise in general is a relatively common way of expressing one's attitude in Russian. Its prevalence can be associated with the "emotionality" that is characteristic of Russian communicative behaviour. This feature of Russian culture has been identified in numerous linguistic studies (e.g., Wierzbicka 1992, 1998, 2002; Apresjan 1997; Pavlenko 2002; Gladkova 2010a, b, c), as well as in studies by anthropologists, cross-cultural psychologists and cultural historians (e.g., Ries 1997; Pesmen 2000; Visson 2001; Richmond 2009).