Common classes

Lesson 5. Typology of Numeral

Contents

1. The Numeral as a Part of Speech in English and Ukrainian. 1

2. Common classes. 1

3. Divergent classes. 2

4. Structural Classification. 2

The Numeral as a Part of Speech in English and Ukrainian

The Numeralin the contrasted languages has a common lexico-grammatical meaning expressing quantity (two, ten, десять, двадцять один). It may denote a part of an object (one-third, дві п'ятих) or order of some objects (the first, десятий). The syntagmatic properties of numerals are characterised in the contrasted languages by the identical combinability of numerals a) with nouns (four days, перший крок); b) with pronouns (all three, всі три); с) with numerals (two from ten, один із перших); d) with adverbs (the two below/ahead, двоє спереду); е) with the infinitive (the first to соте/to read; другий відповідати), etc.

In the sentence the numeral performs the same function as the noun (cardinal numerals) and adjective (the ordinal numerals), i.e. it can be subject (Four are present), object (I like the second), attribute (It is my second trip), a simple nominal predicate (cf. the two there; їх десять там) and the adverbial modifier (they marched three and three; вони йшли по три).

All numerals in the contrasted languages fall into some common and divergent subclasses.

Common classes

1) cardinal; 2) ordinal and 3) fractionals (common fractions and decimal fractions). Cardinal numerals in both languages denote number: three, five, ten, twenty-one, etc. три, п'ять, десять, двадцять один. Ordinal numerals denote order of persons or objects and are used in English speech with the definite article: the third, the fifth, the tenth, the twenty-first, the one hundred and twenty-third, etc. Ukrainian ordinal numerals are semantically of isomorphic nature: перший, третій, п'ятий, двадцять п'ятий, сто двадцять п'ятий. The main allomorphic feature is the existence of morphological endings pertained to most numerals that are declinable in Ukrainian. They have number, case and partly gender distinctions. For example, the category of case: десять, десяти, десятьом, десятьма; другий, другого, другому, другим; дві треті, двох третіх, двом третім, etc.

An exception makes the category of gender of the cardinal numerals один and два which have three gender distinctions (один, одна, одне; два, дві, двоє). All other cardinal numerals have a common form for masculine and feminine genders and a separate form for the neuter gender, eg: три жінки, три чоловіки, but троє дітей; п'ять дубів/ лип and п'ятеро курчат, even п'ятеро хлопців/дівчат (not only when they are small. Cf.: Там було з п'ятеро хлопців). The category of number have only ordinal numerals in Ukrainian. Cf. перші (вони були першими), другі (прийшли другими); Ніхто не хотів бути тринадцятим, etc.

Common and decimal fractionals have an identical expression in both languages: 1 3/4 one and three fourths, 3 1/5 three and one fifths; or 0.5 zero point five (or naught point five); 14.33 fourteen point thirty-three, etc. Ukrainian fractionals are, naturally, declinable. They have case forms. Eg: 3'/₂ три цілих і одна друга (однієї другої, одній другій, однією другою), etc.