The numerical cultural code in the Dagestani proverbial picture of the world

Abstract

This article contains a study of the numerical code in the Dagestani languages in the linguistic and cultural aspect on the basis of paremiological units as a fragment of the Dagestani language picture of the world. The relevance of this kind of research is caused by the interest in the means of presenting the quantitative aspect in relation to the content. The analysis of the defined semantic category based on the Dagestani languages seems relevant regarding the cognitive approach, which makes it possible to reveal the specificity of the linguistic representation of the category of numbers in the Dagestani languages and the national cultural components of the cultural numeric code of the linguistic picture of the world. Each Dagestani language had its own system of calculation and measurement. It was actively used to calculate animals, plants, measures of length, volume, weight, area and time. The most productive and symbolic in the paremiology of the studied languages are the first ten numerals. Words with numerical symbols represent both desirable and undesirable situations in a person's life, when there is a problem of choosing and determining one’s position. In linguoculturological aspect of particular interest are the landmarks of space and time associated with human life and its "existence" after death.