THE SEMANTICS OF ADVICE: MODALITY AND VALUE JUDGMENT IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK PROVERBIAL STRUCTURES

Abstract

 Proverbs constitute a conventionalized form of evaluative discourse through which societies encode normative guidance and culturally sanctioned value judgments. This study examines the semantics of advice in English and Uzbek proverbs, with particular attention to modal meanings and axiological orientation. Drawing on a comparative qualitative framework, the research analyzes a corpus of 200 proverbs (100 English and 100 Uzbek) using semantic analysis, modal classification, and a linguocultural approach. The findings demonstrate that while advisory meaning is a shared functional feature of proverbs in both languages, English proverbs predominantly employ implicit modality and experience-based evaluation, whereas Uzbek proverbs rely more heavily on deontic modality and explicit moral prescription. These patterns reflect broader cultural orientations toward individual autonomy and collective responsibility, respectively. The study contributes to paremiology, modality studies, and cross-cultural pragmatics by clarifying how advisory discourse is linguistically and culturally structured in typologically distinct languages.