STRUCTURAL-SEMANTIC ADAPTATION OF ENGLISH IT TERMINOLOGY IN CONTEMPORARY UZBEK: BORROWING, CALQUING, AND HYBRID FORMATION

Abstract

This article investigates the structural and semantic adaptation of English information-technology terminology in contemporary Uzbek. It focuses on direct and transliterated borrowing, calquing, descriptive translation, hybrid formation, and the coexistence of competing variants. ISO 704:2022 treats terminology work as a systematic relationship among objects, concepts, definitions, and designations; this principle is particularly relevant to the standardization of rapidly changing IT vocabulary. A transparent analytical sample of 24 frequently encountered English–Uzbek IT term pairs is classified into three principal transfer strategies: 8 direct/transliterated borrowings, 9 calques or translated formations, and 7 hybrid or competing formations. The analysis shows that Uzbek IT terminology does not develop through simple replacement of English words by local equivalents. Instead, it negotiates a functional balance between international recognizability, conceptual precision, morphological naturalness, and user comprehensibility. Stable terminology therefore requires coordinated decisions concerning spelling, semantic scope, word-formation compatibility, and controlled synonymy.