THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN TRANSLATING CULTURE-SPECIFIC LEXIS: A CASE STUDY OF UZBEK-ENGLISH LITERARY TEXTS

This article examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in translating culture-specific lexis in Uzbek-English literary texts. Culture-specific lexis includes words, expressions, and concepts that are deeply rooted in national traditions, social relations, customs, and worldview. In literary translation, preserving such lexical units is essential for maintaining the cultural authenticity of the source text. The article analyzes the capabilities and limitations of AI-based translation systems in rendering Uzbek culture-bound expressions into English. The study relies on comparative textual analysis, recent research on neural machine translation, and examples from Uzbek literary discourse. The findings show that AI significantly improves lexical accuracy and processing speed, but still faces challenges in conveying contextual meaning, pragmatics, and cultural connotations. The paper argues that AI is most effective when used as an assistive tool in collaboration with human translators.