SPEECH ACTS AND PRAGMATIC STRATEGIES IN UZBEK AND ENGLISH EPICS: A COGNITIVE-PRAGMATIC INQUIRY
Abstract
A literary and cultural artefact, epic poetry reflects the social and cognitive worldviews of the communities that create it. The speech actions and pragmatic techniques found in Uzbek and English epics are examined in this essay, emphasising their function in establishing cultural identity and passing along morals. Epics like Alpomish and Go‘ro‘g‘li in the Uzbek tradition and Beowulf and The Faerie Queene in the English tradition have long been recognised for their aesthetic and folkloric value, but less focus has been placed on how their lyrical discourse serves as a practical communication tool and a cognitive model of thought.This study examines how blessings, curses, oaths, declarations, and divine appeals function within these epics using cognitive frameworks from Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) conceptual metaphor theory, Austin's (1962) and Searle's (1979) speech act theory, and Fauconnier and Turner's (2002) blending theory. The results show that while English epics place more emphasis on individual bravery, personal honour, and appeals to heavenly power, Uzbek epics emphasise collective values through blessings and moral exhortations. Cognitively, English oaths are based on metaphors of bound and battle, but Uzbek blessings are constructed through metaphors of growth, continuity, and kinship. These findings imply that epic speech should be seen as a dynamic cultural discourse that conveys moral frameworks, encodes identity, and preserves collective memory rather than only as a poetry genre.
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References
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