§ 130. The numeral as a part of speech is characterized by
1) its lexico-grammatical meaning of 'number',
2) the category of numerical qualification represented in
opposemes like seven — seventh, nine — ninth,
3) its unilateral combinability with nouns (three children,
the third child),
4) such typical stem-building suffixes as -teen, -ty,
5) its functioning as an attribute, less frequently as some
other part of the sentence.
§ 131. The lexico-grammatical meaning of 'number' is not to be confused with the grammatical meaning of 'number'.
a) The former is the generalization of a multitude of lexi
cal meanings of individual numerals (five, ten, fifty-seven,
etc.). The latter is the generalization of only two grammati
cal meanings: "singular" and "plural".
b) The plural number, as in boys, shows indefinite plural
ity, whereas the meanings of numerals, as in twenty, forty
are definite plurality.
c) Like any grammatical meaning the "plural" of nouns
is relative, dependent and indirect (§ 10). The lexical "plural"
of a numeral like eight is not relative, being as much corre
lated with the "singular" of one as with the "plural" of seven,
or nine, or eighty. The "plural" of eight is independent inas-
njuch as it is the lexical meaning of an independent word.
Its reflection of reality is direct as that of any lexical mean
ing
Ð 92
1 Ãðàììàòèêà ðóññêîþ ÿçûêà ÀÍ ÑÑÑÐ, ÷ 1, Ì.— Ë , 1953.
§ 132. Numerals are usually divided into two groups — 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 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 ordinal numerals are adjectives 1.
Language facts do not support such views.
1 Each cardinal numeral has a corresponding ordinal one. Cf. seven — seienth, thirty — thirtieth, eighty-four — eighty-fourth, etc.
2. Both cardinals and ordinals qualify substances quan
titatively, as distinct from adjectives whose qualification
is qualitative.
3. Cardinals often denote numerical order like ordinals.
Cf. lesson fice = Èãå fifth lesson.
4. Only numerals have the suffix -th. Nouns denoting
number (gross score, etc.) cannot be associated with it.
Formations of the type *grossth, *scoieth are impossible.
5. If -th were regarded as a stem-building suffix, it would
be the only suffjx of this kind in the English language em
bracing all the words of a part of speech (in our case — numer
als) minus three (one, two, three).
6. The relation between ten and tenth resembles the rela
tion between boy and boy's. As words of the boy's type are
mostly used in the function of attributes, they might also
be declared adjectives.
§ 133. In our opinion, the pair ten — tenth forms an oppo-seme of the grammatical category of numerical qualification.
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 tenth. This opposition is as regular as that of the zero morpheme of the singular and the -(e)s morpheme of the-plural. Even more so, in fact, because there are fewer exceptions. The meaning of the zero morpheme is that of 'numerical quantity' and the meaning of the morpheme -th is that of 'numerical order'. Like every grammatical
1 Op. cit., p. 163.
meaning the meaning of "numerical order" is relative(always correlated with the meaning of 'numerical quantity') and dependenton the lexical meaning of the word, i e. the suffix -th does not express "numerical order" in general, but the order of the number named by the lexical part of the word.
In the opposemes one — first, two — second, three — third the meaning of numerical qualification is expressed by means of suppletivity and sound interchange.
The words /mlf, quarter, zero, nought, gross, score, etc. which have no ordinal opposites, but possess plural opposites are nouns, not numerals.
§ 134. The combmability of numerals is rather limited. As a rule, they form combinations with nouns Numerals usually precede the nouns they modify, but when a cardinal denotes numerical order it follows the noun. Numerals are, naturally, associated with countable nouns. In cases like the first love, the first snow instances of the phenomena are meant. The definite article in combinations like the second dance is easily accounted for, as the numeral singles out the object or event by indicating its position in a series.
Numerals are, as a rule, not modified by other words. This negative combinability is also a characteristic feature of the part of speech.
§ 135. As to their stem structure English numerals fall into
a) simple or root numerals, such as one, two, three (up
to twelve),
b) derivative numerals formed with the help of the suf
fixes -teen (from thirteen to nineteen), -ty (from twenty to
ninety),
c) compound numerals (from twenty-one to ninety-nine) and
d) composite numerals, such as nine hundred and three.
It is owing to the remarkable way of forming composite
numerals that an unlimited multitude of numbers can be named with the help of a limited number of words.
It has been pointed out J that numerals have a peculiar manner of building up compound and composite stems not observed in any other part of speech.
When a numeral of a lower rank follows a higher numeral their numbers are added, as in eighty-one - eighty -f one.
1 See À. È. Ñ ì è ð í è ö ê è è, op. cit., p. 165.
If the order is reverse, the numbers are multiplied E. g. five hundred ~ jive X hundred. In two hundred and nine multiplication and addition are combined.
§ 136. Numerals are easily substantivized, acquiring noun features.
Let us by way of illustration take the following sentence from a school text-book in arithmetic: "In order to add two numbers add the units of one number to the units of the other, the tens to the tens, the hundreds to the hundreds, etc." Here the numerals tens, hundreds have many features in common , with the noun units. They have the lexico-grammatical meaning of 'substance', the 'plural', suffix -s; they have left-hand connections with articles, prepositions; they are used in the functions of objects. Other instances of the substantivization of numerals are: Arrival of Moscow eleven. (The Worker). Two can play at that game. We are seven. Form fours!
§ 137. The analysis of numeral grammemes in speech presents a picture largely similar to that displayed by adjectival grammemes. The frequency of their occurrence in the analyzed modern literary texts is as follows:
cardinal grammemes — 84 per cent
ordinal grammemes — 16 per cent,
the unmarked members of the opposeme as less specific (here as elsewhere) constituting the bulk of numerals used in speech flow.
Below are combinability patterns of numeral grammemes arranged in tabular form.
| Pattern | Cardinal gram me me | Ordinal gram me me |
| (per cent) | (per cent) | |
| art. + num. -f- noun | ||
| noun -f- prepos. -f num. link-verb + num. | ||
| other models (page ten, one of them, etc.) |
§ 138. English and Russian numerals are similar as to their lexico-grammatical meanings, ways of stem-building, combinability and syntactical functions, but they differ greatly as regards their grammatical categories.
1) Unlike their English counterparts, Russian numerals
possess the categories of gender (ïÿòûé — ïÿòàÿ — ïÿï îå)
case (÷åòûðå — ÷åòûðåõ — ÷åòûðåì, etc.) and number (ïåð
âûé — ïåðâûå).
2) There is a great difference between ordinal and cardi
nal numerals in Russian as far as their categories are con
cerned. Ordinal numerals resemble adjectives not only in
having the categories of number, gender and case, but in the
forms of the grammatical morphemes as well.
Cf. ïÿòûé — êðàñíûé ïÿòîãî — êðàñíîãî ïÿòîìó — ïÿòàÿ — êðàñíàÿ ïÿòûå — êðàñíûå êðàñíîìó
Cardinal numerals do not possess the categories of number and gender (with the exception of îäèí, äâà). The case inflections are also different.
Cf. äåñÿòü — äåñÿòè — äåñÿòüþ çíàòü — çíàòè — çíàòüþ
It is no wonder, therefore, that some linguists separate cardinal and ordinal numerals in Russian and regard the latter as adjectives. But this is certainly no reason why the same should be done in English (§ 132) where conditions are quite different.