The similarities and differences of pragmatic acts revealed through English and Uzbek folk proverbs expressing friendship/enmity

Аннотация

This article discusses Speech Act Theory, which is a key concept in pragmatic linguistics. The theory asserts that a sentence is not merely a unit of information, but an action performed by the speaker, aimed at various goals such as asserting, questioning, ordering, apologizing, and more. Developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, Speech Act Theory was shaped significantly by philosophers John Austin and John Searle. Austin's initial work in the 1950s divided speech acts into three categories: locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts. Locutionary acts refer to the actual utterance of words, illocutionary acts represent the speaker's intent behind the utterance, and perlocutionary acts describe the effect the utterance has on the listener. The article further explores how proverbs in English and Uzbek express these acts, emphasizing the importance of context in understanding speech acts. Keywords: Speech act theory, pragmatics, john austin, john searle, locutionary act, illocutionary act, perlocutionary act, english proverbs, uzbek proverbs, pragmatic analysis, speech acts. Introduction: Speech act theory is an important stage In grammar, each sentence was classified as either an in pragmatic linguistics, in which a sentence is affirmation, a negation, or a question. Austin showed interpreted not only as an informative unit, but also as that the sentence has broader and more complex a speaker's action aimed at various goals. Although the functions. In his opinion, through the sentence we not roots of this theory appeared in the late 19th and early only describe a situation, but also establish 20th centuries, it was fully formed in the second half of relationships, carry out various actions in social life. the 20th century, especially thanks to the work of Austin's view aroused great interest in the fields of philosophers such as John Austin and John Searle. linguistics and philosophy. Because this idea shows the According to their teachings, through a sentence we need to study language not only logically, but also not only report on situations, but also ask, give orders, socially and communicatively. promise, apologize and perform many other actions. So, “a speech act is the pronunciation of a certain Thus, a speech act is not just a language unit, but also sentence in a specific communicative environment. The an important tool in human social life. formation of the content of a speech act is the result of One of the first to promote the idea of interpreting the “enrichment” and perception of the meaning of the speech acts formed in the process of communication as uttered sentence by the speaker and listener in relation separate linguistic units and classifying them by to the text of communication. content was Oxford University professor John Austin. J. Austin divides speech acts into 3 parts: locutionary He raised this problem in his lectures at the traditional act (act of speaking), illocutionary act (act of influence) “William James Readings” held at Harvard University in and perlocutionary act (act of result). 1955. Later, these lectures were published in 1962 under the title “How to do with words”. A locutionary act is related to the linguistic units themselves, their grammatical structure and meaning.