GENDER REPRESENTATION IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK PROVERBIAL PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS: A COMPARATIVE AND LINGUOCULTURAL APPROACH

Abstract

In contemporary linguistics, phraseological and proverbial units are increasingly investigated from comparative, contrastive, and linguocultural perspectives. As culturally marked linguistic units, proverbs and proverbial phraseological expressions reflect the worldview, traditions, values, social experience, and historical development of a particular speech community. One of the significant aspects of their analysis is the representation of gender and gender-related concepts. The present study examines gender representation in English and Uzbek proverbial phraseological units from comparative and linguocultural perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the representation of male and female images, family and social roles, behavioral characteristics, and culturally established gender stereotypes. The study also considers the influence of national mentality, historical development, traditions, social relations, and everyday life on the formation of gender-related meanings. Comparative analysis makes it possible to identify both common features and culture-specific differences in the proverbial phraseological systems of English and Uzbek. The study further considers monoequivalence, polyequivalence, semantic equivalence, and nonequivalence as possible types of correspondence between proverbial units in the two languages. The research demonstrates that proverbial phraseological units function not only as conventional linguistic expressions but also as important carriers of cultural information concerning gender, family, social behavior, and national values.