英语数字习语的文化探源

On the cultural origin of English numerical idioms

在英语习语中,数字的应用极为普遍,数字在习语中承载着许多文化信息,从一个侧面反映了一个民族的文化心理。数字3、7等代表吉祥;而数字5、6、13等则代表不吉利,不受欢迎。这些数字习语的形成受到了宗教文化、古希腊、罗马神话的影响,也与西方人的文化思维方式有关。

The use of numbers is very common in English idiomatic expressions. Numbers in the idiomatic expressions may well carry much cultural information and indirectly reflect cultural mentality of a nation. The numbers of three and seven stand for good-luck while numbers of five, six and thirteen represent bad-luck and unwelcome. The authors of this paper come to the conclusion that the establishment of those numerical idioms was influenced by religious culture, Greek and Roman mythology and also had something to do with Western cultural and their way of thinking.