SIDNI SHELDON VA TOHIR MALIK ASARLARIDAGI O‘XSHATISHLARNING SOTSIOLINGVISTIK TADQIQI

Abstract

 This thesis presents a sociolinguistic analysis of similes found in the works of the 20th-century American writer Sidney Sheldon and the contemporary Uzbek author Tohir Malik. The aim is to identify innate and culture-specific simile phenomena, reveal their social functions, and outline issues related to literary translation and intercultural communication. The research corpus includes Sidney Sheldon’s novel If Tomorrow Comes and selected works by Tohir Malik (including Shaytanat and other stories/novels). Both quantitative methods — calculating the frequency of similes in the corpus — and qualitative methods — such as the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) and sociolinguistic discourse analysis — were applied. The findings show that Sheldon and Malik use similes for different socio-pragmatic purposes: Sheldon emphasizes individual psychology, economic and global references, while Malik reflects social roles, traditional values, and local sociocultural codes. The study provides practical recommendations for literary translation and educational practice.