PRAGMASEMANTIC STRUCTURE AND DISCURSIVE FUNCTIONALITY OF NON-STANDARD MENTAL-ACTIVITY VERBS IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH

Abstract

This article investigates the pragmasemantic structure and discursive functionality of non-standard mental-activity verbs in Uzbek and English. Mental-activity verbs denote processes of thinking, knowing, understanding, remembering, doubting, guessing, realizing, and evaluating. While standard verbs such as think, know, understand, remember in English and o‘ylamoq, bilmoq, tushunmoq, eslamoq in Uzbek have been widely discussed in traditional grammar and semantics, their colloquial, idiomatic, slang-like, and socially marked equivalents have received less systematic attention. The study focuses on English forms such as reckon, figure out, suss out, twig, clock, get it, wrap one’s head around and Uzbek expressions such as kallasi yetmoq, fahmi yetmoq, miyasiga kirmoq, xayoliga kelmoq, bosh qotirmoq, aqliga sig‘moq. Using comparative semantic, pragmatic, and discourse-analytic methods, the article demonstrates that such verbs and verb-like expressions do not merely name cognitive processes; they also express epistemic stance, speaker attitude, social identity, informality, solidarity, irony, mitigation, and evaluative positioning. The findings show that English tends to employ phrasal verbs, metaphorical extensions, and slang innovations, whereas Uzbek frequently relies on body-part phraseology, auxiliary verb constructions, and culturally grounded metaphorical models of mind.