Lexicographic Representation of the Concept of Loyalty and its Semantic Field in English and Uzbek

Abstract

The concept of loyalty constitutes a fundamental moral and social value in human interaction and is deeply embedded in linguistic systems through a network of lexical and semantic representations. Despite its universal ethical significance, the linguistic conceptualization of loyalty varies across languages and cultures, particularly in terms of semantic structure, synonymic expansion, and stylistic orientation. This research article is a contrastive lexicographic study of loyalty in English and Uzbek: the way the concept of loyalty, the approximation and its co-hyponymic words with it are reflected, described and interpreted in terminology and synonymic paper resources. Based on the data from the fundamental sources of English lexicography (Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Collins Dictionary), and lexicographic works of Uzbek (O‘zbek tilining izohli lug‘ati, O‘zbek tili sinonimlar lug‘ati, O‘zbek tili etimologik lug‘ati), this research focuses on definitional structures, intrinsic semantic components, object orientation and synonymic networks related to loyalty denoting lexemes. The results show that by comparison of types of meanings, lexically English is shown to possess a more diverse model of loyalty (loyalty, allegiance, fidelity, devotion), whereas Uzbek is semantically more concentrated and focused around sadoqat and its close variants (sodiqlik, vafodorlik, vafo). The research demonstrates both common and particular features of the concept of loyalty and makes a contribution to comparative lexicography and conceptual semantics.