Ethnic identity in language and communication

In a situation of increasing intercultural communication, the problem of identity has become particularly topical (Besemeres, Wierzbicka 2007; Jenkins 2004, Phinney 2003, Phinney and Ong 2007, Spreckels and Kotthoff 2009 and many others). As a result of globalization and the phenomenon of migration, contact between cultures is ever more frequent, and awareness of cultural factors in intercultural interaction has become more necessary than ever. The study focuses on aspects of Russian ethnic identity, especially their sense of themselves and modes of interaction with others, through a comparison with representatives of English (Anglo-Saxon) culture. The results of lexical, semantic, pragmatic and discourse analyses have shown that, despite considerable changes in Russian society over the last two decades, the we-orientation is still typical of Russians, while an I-orientation is an inherent feature of the English. These differences in identity are embedded on different levels of the language-lexical (they can be seen in the cultural semantics of words), phraseological, grammatical, stylistic-and can be observed in communication.