LINGUOCULTURAL FEATURES OF PROVERBS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH, UZBEK, AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGES

Abstract

This paper examines the linguocultural characteristics of proverbs in English, Uzbek, and Russian, focusing on how these linguistic forms embody national mentality, cultural values, and worldview. Proverbs are analyzed as universal yet culture-specific units that reflect the intersection of language, cognition, and culture. The study adopts a comparative linguocultural and cognitive-semantic approach to identify both shared and divergent conceptualizations encoded in the proverbial systems of three linguistically and culturally distinct languages. Findings demonstrate that while English proverbs tend to emphasize individual experience and pragmatic wisdom, Uzbek proverbs highlight collective values and moral instruction, and Russian proverbs express social balance and emotional depth. The paper concludes that proverbs serve as verbal symbols of national consciousness and cross-cultural understanding, forming a crucial component of the linguistic picture of the world.