CONCEPTUAL - COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF THE STRUCTURE OF WORD COMBINATIONS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK

This study investigates the conceptual-cognitive aspects of word combinations in English and Uzbek. Word combinations are traditionally analyzed in terms of their grammatical structure and syntactic relations; however, their formation and interpretation are also closely related to conceptualization and human cognition. The study compares selected English and Uzbek word combinations and examines how relationships such as possession, qualification, location, action, and evaluation are represented linguistically. Particular attention is given to adjective-noun, noun-noun, possessive, spatial, and verb-noun combinations. The analysis demonstrates that English and Uzbek may express similar conceptual relationships through different grammatical and lexical structures. At the same time, certain combinations reflect language-specific conceptualizations influenced by cultural and linguistic conventions. The study argues that conceptual-cognitive analysis complements traditional structural analysis by explaining not only how word combinations are constructed but also why particular linguistic elements are combined. The findings may contribute to comparative linguistics, language teaching, translation, phraseology, and intercultural communication.