Socio-cultural specificity of the etiquette forms of greetings and addresses in the Uzbek and Russian languages

The research aims to identify universal and unique (culturally conditioned and linguistically specific) features of etiquette forms of greetings and addresses in the Uzbek and Russian languages from the perspective of socio-cultural context. The work is novel in that it is the first one to shed light on new aspects in the interaction of the considered cultures at the level of language and communication. For the first time, a systematization and a comparative analysis of the socio-cultural features of the etiquette of greetings and addresses in different (in terms of structure) languages were conducted within the framework of linguoculturology. The research findings revealed that the specifics of the Uzbek etiquette system are closely related to age, social status, and religious values, unlike the Russian language, which focuses on formality and respectful address through the use of first names and patronymics. The article demonstrates differences in the structure and frequency of use of formal and informal expressions, as Uzbek speech etiquette, in comparison with Russian speech etiquette, imposes its own specific and strict requirements on representatives of Uzbek culture (younger members of society are deprived of the right to address older people by name, and spouses prefer to avoid using each other’s names). Idiosyncratic properties of non-verbal gestures are revealed: in the Uzbek language, these include applying the right hand to the chest or heart, while Russian culture is less ritualized in terms of phatic communication: greetings are accompanied by various tactile actions that vary depending on gender and age aspects.