Abstract: Every language in the world has a close relationship with its own cultural background. Numerical expressions are a very important part of language. That is to say, numerical expressions also have a close relationship with culture. Besides expressing the concept of quantity, the more important function of numerical expressions is that they can reveal certain philosophical and metaphorical meanings. Numerical expressions play an important role in cross-cultural communication. Though it is natural to find some similarities in the denotations of Chinese and English numerical expressions, there are more differences regarding the connotations of Chinese and English numerical expressions. This paper aims at analyzing the differences and finding the reasons behind the differences. The author discusses many special meanings of basic numbers and numerical expressions in English and Chinese, which well reflect the special cultural backgrounds, religions, social customs and philosophies in English and Chinese. In order to study the real meanings of numbers in Chinese and English, the author compares several basic numbers and numerical expressions in Chinese and English to find what causes the differences in the meanings of numbers in the two languages, and hopes to help people understand the differences in the cultural implications of numerical expressions between Chinese and English. In daily life, people use numbers everyday. For those who come from different cultural backgrounds, some misunderstandings, even conflicts, will arise due to the different perceptions about the meanings of numbers. In this paper, the author points out the reasons why people might face some conflicts. But only knowing the reason is not enough, in order to solve the problem, the author introduces some methods, which is more meaningful and valuable.
Key Words: numerical expression; cultural implication; cultural difference; cultural analysis
