Semantics of phraseological units with numerals in the English and Chinese languages

the relevance of foreign-language phraseological units as an object of research is due to their significant role not only in the formation of expressive coloration of speech, but also in a deeper understanding of the national and cultural specifics of a particular language and its speakers. Phraseological units with numeral components are of particular interest, since their semantics contains two semantic layers at once: the literal lexical meaning of the numeral and the symbolic, metaphorical meaning, which, through the interpretation of the numerical component, determines the meaning of a particular stable expression. Thus, the purpose of this work is to identify the specifics of the numbering components in the phraseological units of the English and Chinese languages. The methods of linguistic analysis and comparative phraseology allow us to conclude that in English phraseological units with components "one" and "two" are the most common, while numerals greater than ten are extremely rarely used. In Chinese, however, a significant number of phraseological units with the numerals "ten", "one hundred", "one thousand" and "ten thousand" are used, and there is also a predominantly paired use of any numerical components. The analysis of the functional component allows us to conclude that the metaphorical meanings of the numerical components of phraseological units in both languages include an indefinite large or small number, generality, uniqueness, opposition, as well as qualitative and evaluative characteristics.

phraseological units, numerals, English, Chinese, idioms, metaphorical meaning, quantitative element of phraseological units