PRAGMATIC EQUIVALENCE IN UZBEK-ENGLISH POLITICAL TRANSLATION

Abstract

This article examines pragmatic equivalence in the translation of Uzbek political discourse into English. The study is based on a parallel corpus of official Uzbek political speeches and their English translations and focuses on how communicative meanings are preserved, adapted, or modified in the target text. Particular attention is given to politically and culturally marked expressions, metaphors, evaluative formulations, political concepts, and expressions of national identity. The analysis distinguishes between translation procedures and their pragmatic functions to determine how linguistic shifts contribute to communicative equivalence. The findings show that pragmatic equivalence is achieved through both direct correspondence and context-sensitive adaptation. While institutional and internationally established political terminology is generally translated through conventional equivalents, culturally marked expressions and metaphors may involve explicitation, modulation, metaphorical adaptation, reduction, or lexical substitution. These shifts do not necessarily indicate pragmatic loss. In many cases, they enable the target text to preserve the political intention, evaluative orientation, and communicative force of the source while improving accessibility for an international audience. The study argues that pragmatic equivalence should be evaluated primarily through communicative function rather than formal similarity and demonstrates the value of this approach for Uzbek-English political translation.