POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: A PRAGMATIC AND CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON

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.