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volume 4, issue 2, 2025
694
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BEHAVIORAL VERBS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK
BASED ON CORPUS LINGUISTICS
Ergasheva Shahnoza Erkinovna
Fergana State University
Teacher of the Department of Practical English Language Course
Abstract:
Verbs are an essential component of any language, as they convey actions, processes,
and states. Among them, behavioral verbs represent actions and states associated with human
and animal behavior, such as breathe, smile, sleep, and cry. While behavioral verbs exist in all
languages, their semantic and syntactic properties vary across linguistic systems. This study aims
to conduct a comparative analysis of behavioral verbs in English and Uzbek based on corpus
linguistics. By examining their frequency, semantic classifications, syntactic structures, and
collocational patterns, we aim to identify similarities and differences in their usage. The study
utilizes corpus-based methods, analyzing large textual databases in both languages to extract
meaningful linguistic patterns. Our findings indicate that while both languages share a common
set of behavioral verbs, they differ in terms of transitivity, aspectual markers, and metaphorical
extensions.
Kеywоrds:
behavioral verbs, corpus linguistics, English, Uzbek, comparative analysis, semantic
classification, syntactic structures
INTRОDUСTIОN
Verbs play a crucial role in any language as they express actions, states, and processes. Among
different types of verbs, behavioral verbs are particularly significant as they describe human and
animal behaviors, physiological actions, and psychological states (Halliday, 1985). Examples of
behavioral verbs in English include sleep, breathe, smile, sigh, frown, cry, laugh, and dream.
While behavioral verbs exist in most languages, their usage, semantic scope, and syntactic
properties differ significantly due to linguistic structure and cultural influences.
Uzbek, as a Turkic language, exhibits distinct morphosyntactic features compared to English, an
Indo-European language. While English behavioral verbs are often used in analytic constructions,
Uzbek verbs rely more on affixation, verb aspect markers, and auxiliary verbs to convey similar
meanings. Moreover, Uzbek has a rich system of verb derivation, allowing the formation of new
behavioral verbs through affixes.
With the emergence of corpus linguistics, linguistic research has shifted from intuition-based
analysis to empirical, data-driven studies. Corpus linguistics enables researchers to analyze
large-scale language data, uncovering frequency distributions, collocations, and syntactic
patterns. In this study, we compare behavioral verbs in English and Uzbek using corpus data,
focusing on semantic classification, syntactic behavior, and collocational tendencies.
MАTЕRIАLS АND MЕTHОDS
The study seeks to answer the following research questions:
What are the most frequent behavioral verbs in English and Uzbek?
How do behavioral verbs differ in their semantic and syntactic properties across both languages?
What are the common collocational patterns of behavioral verbs in English and Uzbek?
How do cultural and linguistic factors influence the use of behavioral verbs in each language?
This comparative analysis contributes to the fields of contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics,
and second language acquisition by highlighting key similarities and differences between
https://ijmri.de/index.php/jmsi
volume 4, issue 2, 2025
695
English and Uzbek behavioral verbs.
RЕSULTS АND DISСUSSIОN
Behavioral verbs describe physical, physiological, and psychological behaviors performed by
humans or animals. These verbs bridge the gap between material verbs (which describe tangible
actions, e.g., run, jump, eat) and mental verbs (which describe cognitive activities, e.g., think,
understand, believe).
According to Halliday & Matthiessen (2014), behavioral verbs can be classified into the
following categories:
Category
Examples in English Examples in Uzbek
Physiological actions breathe, cough, yawn nafas olmoq, yo‘talaq, esnamoq
Emotional responses smile, frown, sigh
jilmaymoq, qosh uyish, xo‘rsinmoq
Involuntary reactions blink, twitch, shiver
ko‘z qismoq, titramoq
Habitual behaviors
sleep, dream, snore
uxlash, tush ko‘rmoq, xurrak otmoq
Both English and Uzbek contain a core set of behavioral verbs, but their morphosyntactic
properties differ significantly.
English primarily relies on tense and aspect markers (e.g., -ing for progressive aspect, have +
past participle for perfect aspect), whereas Uzbek makes use of verb affixes and auxiliary verbs
to express aspectual distinctions.
Aspect
English Example Uzbek Example
Progressive He is sleeping.
U uxlayapti.
Perfective
She has sighed.
U xo‘rsindi.
Habitual
They often yawn. Ular ko‘pincha esnaydi.
Corpus-based research allows for quantitative and qualitative analysis of linguistic patterns. In
this study, we utilized two corpora:
The British National Corpus (BNC) for English behavioral verbs.
The Uzbek National Corpus (UZNC) for Uzbek behavioral verbs.
Our findings reveal that while some behavioral verbs are frequent in both languages, others
exhibit significant cross-linguistic differences in usage and collocations.
Corpus data reveal distinct collocational preferences of behavioral verbs in both languages.
English Collocations
Uzbek Collocations
smile warmly, smile faintly, smile politely jilmayib qo‘ymoq, kulib yubormoq
sigh heavily, sigh deeply, sigh softly
chuqur xo‘rsinmoq, asta xo‘rsinmoq
yawn widely, yawn sleepily, yawn loudly charchab esnamoq, ancha esnamoq
These differences indicate that cultural and linguistic factors play a role in how behavioral verbs
are used and perceived.
СОNСLUSIОN
This study highlights key similarities and differences between English and Uzbek behavioral
verbs based on corpus analysis. The findings reveal that:
English relies on tense and aspect markers, while Uzbek uses verb affixes.
Uzbek behavioral verbs exhibit more derivational variations.
Collocational patterns differ due to cultural and linguistic influences.
The study contributes to contrastive linguistics and translation studies, providing valuable
insights for language learners, educators, and researchers. Future research may explore pragmatic
and cognitive aspects of behavioral verbs across languages.
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АНАЛИЗ
ЛИНГВОСТАТИСТИЧЕСКОЙ
ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ
АКЦЕНТНЫХ
ФОНОВАРИАНТОВ
ИМЕН
СУЩЕСТВИТЕЛЬНЫХ
РУССКОГО
ЯЗЫКА.
МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ
ЖУРНАЛ
ИСКУССТВО СЛОВА
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