Sočuvstvie and Sostradanie: A Semantic Study of two Russian Emotions - The Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach

If one wants to appreciate a certain culture and master its language it is essential to understand this culture's prominent attitudes conceptualised in the lexicon of the language. The Russian culture has often been described as possessing communal character (Berdyaev, 2000; Boym, 1994) and as being strong in emotional expression (Wierzbicka, 1992; 1999; Pavlenko, 2002; Gerhart, 2001). These two attitudes are embedded in the words sočuvstvie (usually translated into English as 'sympathy') and sostradanie (usually translated into English as 'compassion'). These words describe emotions which are caused by the realization of a negative emotional state of another person. Understanding of the meanings of these words will give us a key to understanding of the ways of thinking and behaving specific to Russian culture. The semantic description of these two words poses several challenges.