MODAL PREDICATIVE STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK: DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES

Аннотация

This article analyzes the lexical and grammatical means of expressing modal predicative structures in English and Uzbek, their syntactic features, and the similarities and differences in their semantic approach. The forms in which modal meanings (obligation, possibility, permission, desire) are expressed in both languages are illustrated with examples. It is also shown that structures expressed through predicative units in Uzbek are often expressed through modal verbs in English. The results of this study have practical significance forteachers ofEnglish who teach inUzbek, as well as for translators. Keywords: modal predicative structure, modal verb, predicative unit, obligation, possibility, syntax, English language, Uzbek language Introduction.This article is aimed at a linguistic comparison of modal predicative constructions in English and Uzbek. Modal predicatives express the subject’s attitude toward an action — whether the action is necessary, permitted, probable, or desired — which is referred to as modality in linguistics. While both languages include modal meanings, the grammatical methods used to express them have distinctive features.In English, modal predicativity is mostly conveyed through modal verbs (e.g., must, can, may, might), which form the predicative part of the sentence. In contrast, Uzbek expresses modality mainly through predicative words (kerak, mumkin, lozim, ehtimol) or verb constructions. For example, the English sentence “She must go” is translated into Uzbek as “U borishi kerak”, where kerak functions as a modal predicative unit.This study focuses on how modal meanings such as possibility, necessity, and probability are expressed in both language systems. The comparative analysis reveals the morphosyntactic and semantic characteristics of both languages, providing a theoretical and practical foundation useful for translation, language teaching methodology, and bilingual linguistic analysis. Modal predicative structures represent the grammatical and semantic mechanisms by which modality—such as obligation, permission, possibility, and desire—is expressed within the predicative part of a sentence. These structures indicate thespeaker’s attitudetoward theaction orevent described. Modality refers to a linguistic category used to express the speaker’s judgment about the factual status, necessity, ordesirability ofthe proposition.It is typically classified into:  Deonticmodality (concerned with obligation and permission),  Epistemic modality(related to knowledgeand belief),  Dynamic modality (involvingability orvolition). English primarily employs a synthetic strategy through modal auxiliary verbs to encode modality. These verbs do not inflect for tense or subject and are immediately followed by the base form of the main verb. The modal verbs serve as central components in the predicate page365 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ISSN:2692-5206,ImpactFactor:12,23 AmericanAcademicpublishers,volume05,issue05,2025 Journal: https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai and convey nuances of modality without relying on additional lexical elements. Uzbek, in contrast, relies on an analytic strategy, utilizing predicative modal words and nominalized verb forms. These predicative elements function independently within the predicate and carry modal meaning through a combination of morphological suffixes and lexical items. Uzbek modality often depends on sentence structure and the position of modal predicates relative to thenominalized verb form. While English uses modal auxiliaries in a fixed syntactic position, Uzbek integrates modality through a two-part construction involving a nominalized verb and a modal predicate. Additionally, negation, tense, and aspect are handled differently in each language, which affects the interpretation of modality.Despite the grammatical differences, English and Uzbek share a core set of modal meanings. The semantic functions—necessity, possibility, permission, and desire—are present in both languages. However, the means of expressing them differ significantly due to typological contrasts: English being more syntactic and auxiliary-based, while Uzbek is morphologically rich and utilizes lexical- predicative elements. Understanding these differences is essential in fields such as contrastive grammar, language teaching, and translation. Failure to account for structural differences can lead to misinterpretation or mistranslation of modality, especially in nuanced contexts like legal, academic, or literary discourse. For language learners, recognizing howmodal concepts are encoded differently across languages enhances grammatical accuracy and communicative competence. For translators and language instructors, awareness of these structures supports moreeffective teaching strategies and faithful translation practices. Concept ofModal Predicativity Modal predicativity is a grammatical-syntactic unit expressing the subject’s attitude towa