This study examines language-specific characteristics and cross-linguistic variation in the use of passive constructions in English and Uzbek news headlines. It explores how passive voice is strategically employed to foreground events while backgrounding agents, thereby contributing to the construction of objectivity in headline composition. The analysis is based on a dataset of 100 English headlines from The New York Times and NBC News, and 100 Uzbek headlines from Kun.uz and Uzreport news. For the purposes of this study, headlines containing passive constructions were selected from these online news sources. The collected data were classified into simple and complex sentence types and subsequently analyzed in terms of phrase structure, tense usage, and agent formation. The findings indicate that passive constructions in each languages exhibit typological differences and language specific tendencies conditioned by genre-specific conventions and typological characteristics. Both English and Uzbek headlines prioritize informational efficiency and conciseness, generally employing simplified clause structures to fulfill the summarizing function of headlines. However, they diverge in their preferred strategies: English tends to rely more on structural reduction and omission, whereas Uzbek more consistently exploits its morphological resources to encode grammatical relations within passive constructions. The study enhances understanding of cross-linguistic patterns by showing how passive constructions function across languages, while linking classroom learning with real-world use for learners and researchers.
Matluba Parpikhodjaeva (Thu,) studied this question.