2. Grammatical categories of numeral

The English numeral as a part of speech is characterized by the following features:

1. its lexico-grammatical meaning of "number";

2. such typical stem-building suffixes as -teen, -ty;

3) the category of numerical qualification represented in opposemes like seven - seventh;

4. its unilateral combinability with nouns {three children, the third child);

5. its syntactic function as an attribute, less frequently as some other part of the sentence.

The lexico-grammatical meaning of "number" is not to be confused with the grammatical meaning of "number":

1. The former is the generalization of a multitude of lexical meanings of individual numerals (five, ten, fifty seven, etc.). The latter is the generalization of only two grammatical meanings: "singular" and "plural".

2. The plural number, as in boys, shows indefinite plurality, whereas the meanings of numerals, as in twenty, forty are definite plurality.

Numerals are usually divided into two groups, as it has been mentioned above, - cardinal numerals (one, five, twenty) and ordinal numerals (first, fifth, twentieth). The former denote some numerical quantity, the latter - some numerical order.

The difference between these two groups is sometimes exaggerated to such an extent that they are treated as belonging to different parts of speech. For instance, A.I. Smirnitsky is of the opinion that only cardinal numerals form a separate part of speech, whereas cardinal numerals are adjectives [24; 92-93].

In the opinion of B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya, the pair ten - tenth forms an opposeme of the grammatical category of numerical qualification [24; 92-93].

The lexical meaning of the two words expressed by the lexical morpheme ten- is the same. They are opposed only grammatically by the opposition of the zero morpheme in ten and the -th morpheme in

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_tenth. The opposition is as regular as that of the zero morpheme of the angular and the -(e)s morpheme of the pi_{uraL The meaning of me z}^ro morpheme is that of "numerical quantity", _{and the meaning of ще} __tfi morpheme is that of "numerical order".

In the opposemes one -first, two . _{secondi three} _ _{ты ±е} ^aanmg of numerical qualification is expressed by means of _si^ppletivity and sound interchange.

The words half, quarter, zero, nought, _SCore, etc. which have no _ofdmal opposites, but possess plural o_Pp_OSit_es are nouns not _ni>merals. The same in Ukrainian: words like одинщя, десяток _д1ржина, сотня, пара are the numeral nou_ns (_4HCJTOBi 1менники)

English and Ukrainian numerals are _{similar as to their lexico}. grammatical meanings, ways of stem-building, combinability and ^tactic functions, but they differ greatly r_{egarding their grammatical ca}fegones.

1) Unlike their English counterparts, Ukrainian numerals _po^sess the categories of gender (mpemiu _ _mperm _ _mpeme^ _case (mf^u ~ ^mP^bOX ~ ^mP^bOMl and number (перший - nepuii)

2) There is a great difference between ordinal and cardinal _nu^erals m Ukrainian as far as their categories are concerned Ordinal _№^erals resemble adjectives not only in having the categories of _nu^ber, gender and case, but in the f_{0rms of the} grammatical _m^fphemes as well. Compare: mpemiu >. _{мужнШ> mpembOZO} _ _му?снъого, etc. Cardinal numerals do not _possess the categories of _nu^ber and gender (with the exception of один, два). Therefore the _nu^eral in English is the indeclinable part of speech, whereas in caiman it is declined according to the sam_{e six cases as nouns}

In both languages numerals expressing the number as the _ch/actenstic feature of some object do not have the category of _ш^Ьег themselves. In Ukrainian only the _{numeral odm somehow re#}ns the correlation of singular and plural forms, though in reality _its plural form is reconsidered (переосмислений). Thus in _co^bmation with nouns, which do not hav_e the singular number, it _rea(ly renders the singleness of the object (одиничшсть предмета)

(compare: odm сани, однг окуляри), but in other cases it acquires the meaning of pronoun (compare: odui хлопщ меш говорили).

The category of gender is altogether absent in English numerals. In Ukrainian the majority of numerals do not have it either (from 3 to 999). The gender characteristics are differentiated only in numerals один (одна, одно), два (dei), обидва (oGudei), niemopa (niemopu). Besides the numeral один the rest of these numerals have the common form for the masculine and the neuter gender. The gender forms in all the numerals are expressed only in the nominative and accusative cases. For the rest of cases all three genders coincide in one form (e.g.: двох чоловМв, жток, вжон).

The declension of Ukrainian numerals is not a united consistent (послщовний) system, it contains the samples of different declensions. The numeral один is declined as a demonstrative pronoun той, та, me. The rest of numerals are declined very differently. Numerals from 5 to 90 (except 40) have in the genitive, the dative and the local cases one common form with the flexion -и. Also they have the common form for the nominative and accusative cases, and only in the instrumental case they have the separate form with the flexion -ма (uiicmbjua). Numerals 40, 90, 100 have the common form for the whole rest of indirect cases {сорока').

Such a unification of indirect cases shows that the system of declensions in Ukrainian is being ruined. Morphological forms of numerals transfer their semantic load onto the syntactic forms.

The collective numerals двое, трое and others have only the nominative case, in other cases the forms of usual cardinal numerals are used instead of them (двох, двом, двома). The collective numerals обидва обидвг, обое have the forms of the numeral оба in indirect cases, which was widely used in older times.

The numerals niemopa, niemopa, niemopacma are not declined altogether.

In both languages the numeral can be used independently without the modified noun. In such cases they are somehow substantivized, performing different syntactic functions, typical for nouns. In Ukrainian the collective nouns of the type двое, трое,

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четверо and others and their diminutive forms двшко, тртко axe very often used without nouns.

The peculiarity of the English language is the often use of cardinal numerals in the role of ordinal ones. It happens usually by denoting the year, the chapter of the book, the page, the number and so on, e.g.: page five (n 'ята стортка), number six (шостий номер), lesson two (другим урок), in the year nineteen seventeen (y 1917 рощ). In Ukrainian such a usage is only possible with the word номер (аудиторы номер десять). In other cases the ordinal numerals are always used.

The ordinal numerals are most often used in the function of attribute in both languages: the first floor, другим поверх. The forms of ordinal numerals, similar to forms of adjectives, are wholly syntactic ones: they are revealed only as a consequence of existing of certain categories by the corresponding nouns with which these ordinal numerals are agreed (Форми порядкових чисшвниюв, як i форми прикметнимв, цшком синтаксичш: вони виявляються виключно як наслщок юнування певних категорш у вщповщних 1менниках, з якими щ' порядков! числ1вники узгоджуються) [5; 58-59].

The combinability of English and Ukrainian numerals is rather limited. As a rule, they form combinations with nouns. Numerals usually precede the nouns they modify, e.g.: three boys - трихлопщ first day - перший день. Numerals, as a rale, are not modified by other words. This negative combinability is also a characteristic feature of the part of speech.

Discussion questions and exercise tasks: I. Consider your answers to the following:

1. Characterize the groups of numerals in English and Ukrainian languages.

2. What are the peculiarities of Ukrainian collective numerals?

3. What are the groups of English and Ukrainian numerals according to their stem-structure?

4. Compare the group of fractional numerals in both contrasted languages.

5. What are the peculiarities of Ukrainian ordinal numerals in comparison with the English ones?

6. Characterize numeral as a part of speech (think of the number о Г grammatical categories, typical stem-building elements, combinability, syntactic functions). Do these characteristics differ or coincide in the contrasted languages?

7. How can you characterize the combinability of numeral as a part of speech in English and Ukrainian languages?