THE ROLE OF VOICING IN THE PHONOLOGY OF IMPERATIVE FORMS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK

Abstract

This study explores the role of voicing in the phonological structure of imperative forms in English and Uzbek. While imperative constructions in both languages serve the primary function of issuing commands, requests, or instructions, they exhibit significant phonological differences, particularly in the treatment of voicing. The paper analyses how voicing affects the pronunciation, stress, and intonation patterns of imperative verbs in both languages. In English, the presence or absence of voicing in final consonants may influence the imperative’s tone and perceived politeness, especially in monosyllabic verbs. In Uzbek, an agglutinative language, voicing alternations often occur at morpheme boundaries, affecting the phonetic realization of imperatives. By comparing these features, the paper highlights cross-linguistic differences in voicing phenomena and their implications for phonological theory and language pedagogy. Additionally, the study considers how voicing interacts with morph syntactic structures and sociolinguistic context, emphasizing the role of prosody in shaping the communicative force of imperatives. The findings provide insights for comparative phonology, second language acquisition, and practical language instruction, especially for learners transitioning between English and Uzbek.