PRAGMATIC FAILURE IN ENGLISH–UZBEK INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND SPEECH ACTS IN EVERYDAY DISCOURSE
Keywords:
speech acts, pragmatics, intercultural communication, politeness theory, pragmatic transfer, everyday discourseAbstract
The theory of speech acts occupies a central position within
contemporary pragmatic scholarship precisely because it demonstrates that language
operates as an instrument of social action rather than as a passive vehicle for the
transmission of propositional content. Participants in communication do not confine
themselves to the production of well-formed sentences; through language they extend
apologies, issue requests, undertake commitments, decline proposals, express
gratitude, evaluate, counsel and persuade. This first part of the study lays out the
theoretical foundations of speech act theory from Austin and Searle through Brown
and Levinson, Leech and the notion of pragmatic transfer and examines how speech
acts such as requests, apologies, gratitude and refusals are realized in everyday,
quotidian communication in English and Uzbek. The analysis shows that although the
same speech act categories are attested across the two languages, their linguistic
encoding and pragmatic interpretation diverge considerably, with Uzbek distributing
politeness work across morphology and lexis to a degree with no direct English
equivalent.
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