The Comparative Research Of Numeral Cultures In Chinese And Kazakh Languages

The research of the numeral cultural meaning is one the most important issues that linguistics deals with. Numerals are one of the basic conceptions in human language. The numerals denote not only certain amount but they preserve rich cultural meaning in themselves.Numerals except its basic numerical expression also have non-numeric cultural implications and mysterious and sacred content. Difference in cultural meaning of numerals in Chinese and Kazakh languages consists in two different of cultural originations. Numerals in Chinese and Kazakh languages have long historical origination and rich cultural meaning. From the very beginning, the emergence of numerals didn’t have any mystical features. It originated from the hunting era. Numerals’primary function lies in calculation. It expressed the quantity of things. But according to historical-cultural background because of religious belief, spiritual superstitions and worship of ancient people it led to worshipping a number’s super nature. Numerals went beyond numerical concept which was used only in counting and came to reflect multivariate symbolic values. People thought that numerals can bring happiness and wealth or disaster and misfortune. That’s why numerals posses mysterious significance of good and ill luck appraisal. These mysterious ideas have different cultural origins in Chinese and Kazakh languages which formed different cultural meanings.This paper reviews the relevant Chinese and Kazakh researches based on academic, the most basic cultural meanings of numerals from one to ten in Chinese and Kazakh languages. The sources and causes were further discussed and investigated in this paper, and to the cultural meanings of the cardinal numbers in Chinese and Kazakh, the author made a comparative analysis. The paper also proposes Chinese and Kazakh languages analysis of fortune and unfortune numeral cultural meanings, also culture meanings of numeral idiom. We can improve our knowledge and understanding in cultural meaning of often used numerals by searching for the cultural origin of numbers and connecting together investigations of related numerals and conducting comparative analysis of numerals between Chinese and Kazakh languages.