COMPARATIVE-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS UNITS IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH

• Muslimaxon Ubaydulla qizi Abdullayeva

  Author

This article presents a comparative-pragmatic analysis of politeness units in Uzbek and English. The aim of the research is to identify how politeness is expressed through address forms, request formulas, apologies, gratitude expressions, honorific vocabulary, hedges and indirect speech acts in the two languages. The study is based on descriptive, comparative, linguopragmatic and cultural-pragmatic methods. The analysis shows that Uzbek politeness is strongly connected with age, social hierarchy, kinship-based address, respect for elders and collective values, while English politeness is more frequently realized through indirectness, modal verbs, hedging, personal autonomy and the avoidance of imposition. Uzbek units such as siz, aka, opa, ustoz, domla, otaxon, onaxon, marhamat, rahmat, uzr and baraka toping demonstrate culturally embedded respect and solidarity. English units such as please, thank you, sorry, excuse me, would you, could you, Mr., Ms., sir and madam indicate politeness through social distance, formality and mitigation. The results prove that politeness units are not merely lexical elements; they function as communicative strategies that reflect national mentality, social norms and cultural values.

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