EMOJI AS ILLOCUTIONARY CUES IN COMPUTER‑MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: A COMPARATIVE PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND UZBEK SPEECH ACTS

This article examines how emoji function as illocutionary cues in English and Uzbek digital discourse. Drawing on speech act theory and politeness pragmatics, we describe the ways emoji modulate the illocutionary force of requests, directives, evaluations, irony and humor. The analysis shows that English CMC frequently employs emoji for overt stance marking and irony signaling, whereas Uzbek CMC tends to use emoji more systematically for mitigation, face‑saving, and maintaining respectful social distance, especially in asymmetrical relations.