FUNCTIONAL-SEMANTIC FEATURES OF PREFIXES IN MODERN UZBEK LANGUAGE

Abstract

This article examines the functional-semantic characteristics of prefixes in modern Uzbek, a language whose morphological system is predominantly agglutinative and suffix-based. Although prefixation is not native to the historical word-formation system of Turkic languages, the intensive contact of Uzbek with Russian, and through Russian with international (Latin, Greek, French) vocabulary, together with the more recent influence of English-medium terminology, has led to the establishment of a functioning, if peripheral, layer of prefixal word-formation in the contemporary lexicon. The article classifies the prefixes attested in modern Uzbek according to their origin, their part-of-speech distribution, and their semantic functions (negation, opposition, repetition, intensification, spatial and temporal relations, and evaluative meaning), and discusses the degree to which these units have been assimilated into the native derivational system. The analysis is based on lexicographic sources, media and scientific-technical texts, and comparative material from Turkic linguistics. The findings show that prefixes in Uzbek occupy a transitional position between borrowed lexical elements and genuine word-formation morphemes, and that their productivity is steadily increasing in terminological and journalistic registers.