THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF HUMOROUS DIALOGUES IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGE SYSTEMS: UNIVERSAL PATTERNS AND DIFFERENCES

Abstract
Humor is not merely a collection of funny stories or jokes but a complex, multifaceted, and culturally conditioned phenomenon of human relations. It exists in any society and any language, serving not only to uplift the mood but also to perform deep social, pragmatic tasks. Through humor, people communicate, strengthen or weaken relationships, criticize or affirm social norms, relieve stress, and even gain the opportunity to discuss difficult topics.
The purpose of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of the main pragmatic functions of humorous dialogues—establishing solidarity, criticism, and coping—in various languages, specifically Uzbek (a Turkic language), Russian (Indo-European, Slavic group), English (Indo-European, Germanic group), and Chinese (Sino-Tibetan family). At the heart of the research lies the similarity and difference in the expression of humor due to the linguocultural specificities of these languages.
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