Gender as a Factor in Phraseological Lacunarity in English and Uzbek

This article examines the manifestations of gender as a factor contributing to phraseological lacunae in English and Uzbek, with particular attention to the interaction between cultural stereotypes, semantic asymmetry, evaluative meaning, and pragmatic function. Phraseological lacunae are understood as gaps in conventional phraseological correspondence in which an expression in one language lacks an established equivalent in another language that preserves its relevant semantic, cultural, stylistic, and communicative properties. Gender is considered as a sociocultural dimension of linguistic meaning through which expressions may represent, evaluate, or reinforce expectations concerning femininity, masculinity, family relationships, professional roles, emotional behaviour, and social status. The study employs a comparative-descriptive approach, combining semantic analysis, linguocultural interpretation, and the examination of illustrative English and Uzbek gender-marked expressions. Particular attention is paid to gender asymmetry, unequal evaluative associations, lexical and phraseological markedness, the conventionalization of social roles, and differences in the representation of unmarried people, occupational identities, and domestic responsibilities. The analysis proposes four manifestations of gender-related phraseological lacunarity: structural-semantic asymmetry, cultural-evaluative non-equivalence, pragmatic and stylistic divergence, and unequal conventionalization of gender-marked expressions. The article argues that gender-related lacunae should not be interpreted as evidence that one language lacks a concept or that all members of a linguistic community share the same gender stereotypes. Rather, they reflect differences in the ways particular linguistic communities conventionalize and evaluate socially gendered experiences. The proposed framework contributes to contrastive phraseology, gender linguistics, translation studies, and intercultural communication, while highlighting the need for empirical validation through comparable English and Uzbek phraseological datasets.