Linguocognitive and pragmatic features of female inner speech: a comparative analysis of V. Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" and O. Hoshimov's "Ikki eshik orasi"

The article examines the linguocognitive and pragmatic features of female discourse in English and Uzbek fiction based on Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs Dalloway” and O‘tkir Hoshimov’s “Ikki eshik orasi” (“Between Two Doors”). Female discourse is treated as gender-marked verbal activity, and its conceptual foundations, metaphorical models and communicative strategies are analysed. The study draws on cognitive linguistics, pragmalinguistics and gender linguistics, applying conceptual analysis, speech act theory, politeness theory and the comparative-typological method. The results show that in Woolf’s novel female discourse is realised mainly through interior monologue, where the concepts TIME, MEMORY and SOLITUDE are central. In Hoshimov’s novel the female voice emerges within a polyphonic narrative dominated by the concepts PATIENCE, FAMILY and FATE and by indirect strategies based on blessings, prayer formulas and euphemisms. In both texts female speech becomes a means of self-reflection and of voicing the conflict between identity and social roles. The findings may be used in teaching comparative linguistics, text analysis and translation studies.