EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE STRATEGIES OF THE CONCEPT OF AGE IN DISCOURSE

Abstract

The present article examines the concept of age as a complex sociocultural and discursive phenomenon in contemporary linguistic research, with particular emphasis on its emotional, pragmatic, and suprasegmental dimensions. Age is analyzed not merely as a biological or chronological parameter, but as a discursive resource that shapes social interaction and emotional alignment between interlocutors. Drawing on the theories of emotional expression proposed by P. Ekman and W. Friesen and the speech act theory developed by J. Austin and J. Searle, the study explores how age-related meanings are realized through lexical choices, speech acts, and nonverbal and prosodic features. Special attention is paid to the role of illocutionary intention and perlocutionary effect in age-related utterances in English and Uzbek. The analysis demonstrates that emotional attitudes toward age are culturally encoded and manifested through distinct communicative strategies, including intonation, tempo, pitch, and pauses. A comparative perspective reveals both universal and culture-specific patterns in the linguistic representation of age, highlighting its multimodal and dynamic nature in discourse.