Category of quantity: dvandva compounds and reduplicated nouns in Japanese

This article describes phenomena of dvandva compounds and reduplicated nouns in Japanese connecting with the category of quantity. The resume of scientific articles concerning this problem in Russian and Japanese linguistic is also given. Structure and combination with the next words, order of components in dvandva compounds and factors influencing on this order, typical meaning, and absence of sequential voicing in the second member of dvandva compounds have been studied. The next common features of dvandva compounds and reduplicated nouns have been revealed. These words have coordinative relations between compounds. The most of them are unanimated nouns. As dvandva conpounds as reduplicated nouns express the meaning of indefinite quantity. The next peculiarities of dvandva compounds and reduplicated nouns have been revealed. Dvanda compounds and reduplicated nouns by origin have relation to the different levels of lexica. Dvanda compounds as a rule are words formed by kango. Dvandva compounds formed by wago and gairaigo are a very few. Reduplicated nouns are formed only by wago. As dvandva compounds as reduplicated nouns express the meaning of indefinite quantity but dvandva compounds are characterized as a two-headed words that means the each component of dvandva compounds has own referent whereas reduplicated noun has one referent. As dvandva compounds as reduplicated noun of Japanese language express the meaning of indefinite discrete quantity with remaining of significance of each component. But the meaning of dvandva compounds combines the internal idea of separate existence of each component with external idea of formation of a certain pair whereas the meaning of reduplicated noun is more complicated. It combines the internal idea of separate existence of each component with external idea of collectivization of numerous elements in one unite (collective meaning) and simultaneously has different nuances depending on semantic category of noun.