COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE “NEAR–FAR” OPPOSITION WITHIN THE CATEGORIES OF SPACE AND TIME IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

Abstract

In this article, based on the data of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of English and Uzbek, a comparative analysis is conducted of the lexical-semantic structure of the “near–far” opposition within the categories of space and time. The correspondence and differences of the analyzed “near–far” opposition in English and Uzbek, as well as its manifestation in literal and figurative meanings, are explained by the non-related nature of the two languages. In English and Uzbek, this opposition is used to describe physical, emotional or metaphorical distances between objects, people or ideas. In similarly inflected languages, the “near” and “far” opposition is in the main lexeme category used to represent proximity and distance. In Uzbek, we can give as an example the words nari, beri, which are characteristic of the dialect, equivalently to the lexeme “near-far", but it should be taken into account that these equivalent words are used in some semas that represent the near-distant opposition that is, applied to distance and relationships.In English, theclose lexemedenotes proximity or short distance.It can refer to both physical intimacy and abstract or metaphorical intimacy.Thelong lexeme, on the other hand, indicates a significant distance, either physically or metaphorically.In both languages, “near” and “far” can represent not only physical distance, but also emotional or ideological distances.For example, in English as in Uzbek, “close friend” means emotional intimacy, both of which have the same meaning.In these languages, adjectives or phrases are used to describe specific types of proximity or distance.In English, phrases such as “close”, “almost” or “far”meanthemain meanings.