POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: A PRAGMATIC AND CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47390/SPR1342V5SI6Y2025N17Keywords:
cross-cultural pragmatics, politeness strategies, Uzbek, English, sociolinguistics, intercultural communication.Abstract
Politeness is a complex linguistic and cultural phenomenon that governs how individuals navigate social interactions. The author proposes in this paper an overview of how Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory might assist us to examine pragmatics in English and Uzbek. English, with its focus on individualism, often employs syntactic mitigation such as modal verbs and hedging. Uzbek, shaped by collectivist values and social hierarchy, relies on honorifics, contextual cues, and avoidance.
References
1. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). *Politeness: Some universals in language usage*. Cambridge University Press.
2. Kasper, G., & Blum-Kulka, S. (Eds.). (1991). *Interlanguage pragmatics*. Oxford University Press.
3. Karimova, Z. (2015). Politeness strategies in the Uzbek language: Social status and indirectness. *Tashkent State University Journal of Philology*, 8(2), 45–59.
4. Toirova, M. (2020). Politeness forms and cultural behavior in Uzbek communication. *Language and Culture Studies*, 3(1), 22–30.
