Arabic and Roman numbers as part of Chinese semiotic system

L.L. Bankova

Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, 603155 Russia

E-mail: lwittsa@yandex.ru

Received February 16, 2020

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DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.5.249-260

For citation: Bankova L.L. Arabic and Roman numbers as part of Chinese semiotic system. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2020, vol. 162, no. 5, pp. 249–260. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.5.249-260. (In Russian)

Abstract

The role of Roman and Arabic numbers in the Chinese semiotic system was analyzed. It was found that the use of Roman numbers in the Chinese language is extremely restricted: they only occur in official documents executed in accordance with the Western traditions and in some educational editions, which is due to the fact that the functions of Roman numerals are commonly carried out by the Chinese characters belonging to the traditional Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches sets. On the contrary, Arabic numbers are widespread. They originated in India and penetrated into China at the third attempt in the early 20th century. The failures of the first two attempts are explained by such fundamental differences of the Chinese writing system from the Western one as the direction of the text (down from the top and right to left) and the multiplicity of writing. With the Chinese language reforms, Arabic numbers were introduced in Mandarin. Having penetrated into the Chinese semiotic system, Arabic numbers became so widespread that a state standard was produced to regulate their co-existence with the traditional Chinese characters of numbers. Besides, Arabic numbers have acquired another important function in the Mandarin semiotic system over the last twenty years: they replace characters in the sphere of Internet and mobile-phone interaction. However, in contrast to other numbers in Mandarin, Arabic numbers, as mathematical signs, are devoid of the status of lexical units. Therefore, despite their extensive use, the functions of Arabic numbers in Mandarin are strictly limited.

Keywords: Chinese language, Chinese semiotic system, Arabic number­s, Roman numbers, numer­als, digital words and phrases

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