RESPONDING TO BLESSINGS: THE SECOND PAIR PART OF BLESSING SPEECH ACTS IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH

Blessings are usually studied as initiating acts. This article examines their second pair part: what a person says after being blessed. Drawing on conversation analysis (adjacency pairs and preference organisation), speech act theory and politeness theory, it compares responses to blessings in Uzbek and English. Uzbek examples are taken from the author's literary corpus (Abdulla Qodiriy, Gʻafur Gʻulom, Oʻtkir Hoshimov); English examples are conventional exchanges of everyday usage. Five response types are distinguished: ratification (Omin), echoing, reciprocation (Sizga ham; You too), thanking (Rahmat; Thank you) and counter-blessing (Baraka toping). The analysis shows that Uzbek treats a blessing as a petition to God that the recipient co-signs, so ratification, echoing and counter-blessing are preferred responses. English treats a blessing mainly as a gift to the hearer, so thanking and reciprocation are preferred. The comparison explains recurrent pragmatic difficulties in Uzbek–English communication and translation: a ratifying Omin rendered as Amen sounds liturgical in English, while a bare Thank you may under-perform the response an Uzbek blesser expects.