Abstract:
This research aims to analyze the general characteristics of Japanese four-character idiomatic compounds with numbers and the connotations of numbers in four-character idiomatic compounds. Purposive sampling was employed for the data collection of the four-character idiomatic compounds from five Japanese idiom dictionaries of four-character idiomatic compounds containing 1,611 idioms.
The research findings affirmed that the general characteristics of Japanese four-character idiomatic compounds with numbers consist of four patterns, i.e. four-character idiomatic compounds with one number; four-character idiomatic compounds with two numbers; four-character idiomatic compounds with three numbers; and four-character idiomatic compounds with four numbers. The presence of the word in the four-character idiomatic compounds with numbers comprises three types: four-character idiomatic compounds of similar meaning words; four-character idiomatic compounds of opposite meaning words; and four-character idiomatic compounds with the same group of meanings. Three aspects of repeated idioms include repeated numbers, repeated characters, and repeated numbers and characters.
The connotations of numbers in the four-character idiomatic compounds infer both amount or quantity and something unrelated to amount or quantity. All of the numbers in the idiom stand for some nuances because they do not refer to amount or counting but rather the denotation of something else.
