Author: Alamov, Shavkatjon R.
Annotation: This article examines the semantic refunctionalization and terminological status of Arabic-origin terms in contemporary Uzbek and Tajik tourism discourse and identifies context-sensitive strategies for their transfer into English. The research is qualitative, contrastive, and corpus-informed. Its material comprises nine Arabic-origin terms - safar, musofir, sayyoh, ziyorat, madrasa, masjid, qasr, ziyofat, and markaz - documented in lexicographic sources and selected authentic tourism and cultural-heritage texts in Uzbek and Tajik. A comparative-terminographic matrix is applied to each term, combining six parameters: etymological source, semantic nucleus, tourism microfield, recurrent Uzbek and Tajik realization, type of refunctionalization, and English translation procedure. The findings demonstrate that the selected terms do not form a homogeneous group. Safar and ziyorat show thematic extension and sectoral terminologization; musofir is pragmatically recontextualized as a recipient of tourism services; sayyoh functions as a stable core term for the tourist subject; madrasa, masjid, and qasr are refunctionalized as heritage and destination-representation markers; ziyofat undergoes domain-specific specialization; and markaz acquires an institutional tourism function. Uzbek and Tajik display considerable conceptual correspondence, while their term formation follows distinct structural preferences: Uzbek tends toward compact nominal compounds, whereas Tajik frequently uses analytical and izafa-based formations. The article argues that English translation cannot rely on automatic dictionary substitution. Direct functional equivalence, explanatory translation, and transliteration with a concise cultural gloss should be selected according to the semantic profile of the term, genre, and target audience. The study contributes an integrated comparative model for Uzbek-Tajik-English tourism terminology and establishes a replicable basis for further corpus-based research.
Keywords: Arabic-origin terms; tourism discourse; semantic refunctionalization; comparative terminology; Uzbek; Tajik; translation into English; cultural heritage.
Pages in journal: 567 - 579
