Verbs of Speech Activity in English and Uzbek: A Contrastive Study of the System

Verbs of speech activity (verba dicendi) form one of the largest and most finely structured verb classes in any language, yet English–Uzbek contrastive descriptions of the class remain fragmentary. This study compares how the two languages organise the class as a system. A purposive sample of 43 English and 50 Uzbek verbs, drawn from explanatory dictionaries of both languages, was analysed by componential analysis of dictionary definitions, valency analysis and contrastive comparison. The verbs fall into nine semantic groups shared by both languages: general speaking, informing, asking, answering, directing, committing, evaluating, manner of speaking and interactive speech. The groups coincide, but the means of filling them differ. English distinguishes content-oriented say from addressee- oriented tell lexically, while Uzbek aytmoq covers both and marks the addressee with the dative case; Uzbek has a dedicated quotative verb demoq with no single English counterpart. Fourteen of the 50 Uzbek verbs (28%) are noun + light-verb compounds (va'da bermoq, iltimos qilmoq), against none in the English sample, and eight of the nine Uzbek interactive verbs carry the reciprocal suffix -(i)sh, where English relies on separate lexemes. These differences have direct consequences for bilingual lexicography: an English–Uzbek dictionary cannot pair the verbs one to one and must state valency and group membership explicitly.