Category of quantity in diachony in Chinese and Japanese languages

In this article we analyze the appearance and development of quantitative expressions in the history of the Chinese and the Japanese languages and examine the influence of Chinese on Japanese linguistic means. The field of expression of quantitative meanings is related to all main levels of language: lexical, word-building, morphological and syntactical, all of them being heterogeneous and not building a uniform system within grammar. One of manifestations of the category of quantity is the category of number - but the grammatical category of number is absent in both languages. The Chinese and the Japanese are typologically different languages, Chinese being isolating Japanese being agglutinating. Both languages, however, enjoy classifier systems. The aim of the article is to reveal the beginning of quantitative noun expressions in Chinese and Japanese and to analyze their development in their histories. The author comes to the conclusion that the grammatical category of number is absent in both languages from the ancient periods. Precise quantity is expressed with the help of numerals. There are similar forms of number: morpheme with meaning «more» is used in front of the next grade of numeral (for example, 鹿五十又六). During 14th-15th centuries the system of Japanese numerals is destroyed and replaced with system of numerals-kango. Precise quantity is also expressed with the help of combination of the noun with the numeral and the classifier. The original systems of classifiers are formed in Chinese and Japanese respectively. Then, Chinese classifiers penetrate Japanese within the system of Chinese numerals. The system of Chinese classifiers is adapted by the Japanese in accord with Japanese perception of surrounding world. Japanese classifiers are still in use with the first ten Japanese numerals. The meaning of quantity may be expressed irrespectively of number with the help of quantifiers - words with the meaning of collectiveness, generalization, wholeness and distributive plurality. In the Japanese language, the ancient lexical and syntactical ways of expression of quantity coexist with lexical ways adopted from the Chinese. The number is facultative in personal pronouns in both languages. To express the number, auxiliary words are implemented in the isolating Chinese and suffixes are implemented in the agglutinating Japanese. The expression of number (either singular or plural) is obligatory in the Japanese language from the beginning of the 16th century.