This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic foundations of the concept of social distance. Social distance is interpreted as a system of relations between communicants determined by social status, age, gender, professional position, and cultural norms. The study identifies the mechanisms of expressing social distance at the lexical, grammatical, and pragmatic levels of the language system, as well as reveals their functional characteristics in the communicative process. Based on Uzbek language material, the linguocultural nature of social distance and its close connection with national mentality and norms of speech etiquette are substantiated.