Emotion of joy through the concepts of “smile” and “laughter” in English, Russian, and Uzbek

Abstract

This article presents an extended linguocultural analysis of the emotion of joy as expressed through the concepts of “smile” and “laughter” in English, Russian, and Uzbek. The study integrates approaches from cognitive linguistics, cultural linguistics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis to investigate how emotional experience is encoded, structured, and interpreted across languages and cultures. Special attention is given to lexical semantics, phraseology, metaphorical models, and communicative norms. The findings reveal that while smile and laughter are universal physiological and emotional responses, their linguistic representation is shaped by culturally specific values, social expectations, and communicative traditions. English tends toward conventionalized politeness and frequent smiling, Russian demonstrates emotional authenticity and restraint, and Uzbek reflects collectivist warmth and hospitality. The article contributes to cross-cultural linguistics by demonstrating that emotional concepts are culturally mediated and linguistically structured. The research also has implications for intercultural communication, translation studies, and language teaching.