PRAGMATIC FAILURES IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN UZBEK AND ENGLISH SPEAKERS

Abstract

Pragmatic failures in cross-cultural communication between Uzbek and English speakers often arise from deep-seated differences in communicative conventions, politeness strategies, implicit cultural norms, and context-dependent expectations. While both languages share surface-level lexical equivalences, their pragmatic functions frequently diverge, leading to misunderstandings, unintended offense, or misinterpretation of intentions. Uzbek communication tends to rely on high-context cues, indirectness, honorific politeness, and culturally encoded deference markers, whereas English communication particularly in Western contexts privileges directness, clarity, individual autonomy, and efficiency of expression. These contrasting norms may cause challenges in speech acts such as requests, refusals, compliments, apologies, and expressions of disagreement. For example, Uzbek indirect refusals may be interpreted as evasive in English, while English direct criticism may sound overly blunt to Uzbek speakers.