Numeral as a part of speech in English and Ukrainian languages

1. Numeral as a part of speech: general characteristics

In both languages numerals are divided into cardinal (кількісні числівники – one, two, один, два) and ordinal (порядкові числівники – the first, the second, перший, другий). Ukrainian cardinal numerals have the peculiar group of indefinite numerals (неозначені числівники): кілька, декілька, багато, чимало, стільки, кільканадцять, кількадесят. Besides Ukrainian numerals possess such a peculiar subgroup as collective numerals (збірні числівники – двоє, обоє, троє, четверо), denoting a certain quantity of objects as one whole. These numerals are created from the base of the corresponding cardinal numerals with the help of the suffix of collectiveness (суфікс збірності) - ер+о. Collective numerals denote numbers within two tens and the numeral тридцять. They can have synonymous forms, e.g.: двоє (двійко), четверо (четвірко), сімнадцятеро. Besides, the following words are included into this group: обоє, обидва, обидві [15; 155]. One more peculiarity of the system of Ukrainian numerals is the caressing forms or diminutive forms of collective numerals (пестливі форми збірних числівників): двійко, двойко, двоєчко, трійко, четвірко, обойко and others. The English language does not have the collective numerals and the diminutive forms are met only by nouns (sonny, Johny). Some meanings of indefinite quantity are expressed here with the help of quantitative adjectives and adverbs (кількісні прикметники та прислівники): many, much, few, little, a little.

The basis of counting in both languages is the decimal system (в основі лічби обох мов лежить десяткова система). That is why the formation structure of numerals’ system does not have a big difference. As to their stem structure English and Ukrainian numerals fall into:

1) Simple or root numerals (прості числівники), such as one, two, three (in English from one to twelve), один, два, три (in Ukrainian from one to ten and the numeral ‘ сорок’).

2) Derivative numerals (похідні числівники) formed with the help of the suffixes -teen (from thirteen to nineteen – these numerals have the double stress: 'four'teen), -ty (from twenty to ninety) in English. In Ukrainian the numerals from 11 to 19 are formed by the way of adding the suffix –надцять (which is created from the word group “ на десяте ” – одинадцять) to numerals of the first ten. Ukrainian numerals denoting tens are formed with - дцять (тридцять). Both suffixes (English -ty and Ukrainian – - дцять) have in the bases of their meaning “ ten”/“десять”. The exceptions in Ukrainian are only two numerals сорок and дев’яносто.

In both languages numerals мільйон–million, мільярд–milliard are borrowed and have in their structure the Latin root “ thousand”/ “тисяча” (mille). The peculiarity of English numerals hundred, thousand, million is the fact that they do not have the plural form, when they are placed after the cardinal numerals bigger than 1, e.g.: two hundred/двісті, three thousand/три тисячі, four million/чотири мільйони.

3) Compound numerals (складні числівники) in English (from twenty-one to ninety-nine);

4) Composite numerals (складені числівники), such as nine hundred and three in English and in Ukrainian двадцять один, вісімсот вісімдесят are formed in both languages according to the general principle. By forming of English numerals higher than 100 it is necessary to use the conjunction “ and ”: two hundred and forty eight. In Ukrainian such numerals are created in the same way as the numerals till 100: сто два, двісті двадцять п’ять.

Fractional numerals ( дробові числівники ) have as well similar way of formation. The difference is that in Ukrainian the cardinal numeral for the numerator (кількісний числівник для чисельника) is in the nominative case and is combined with the ordinal for the denominator (порядковий для знаменника), which is in the genitive case plural: п’ять шостих. In English numerals do not have the category of case, but the ordinal numeral for the denominator is substantivized and acquires the plural form (when the numeral is bigger than 1): five sixths. When we have “ one ” in the numerator, then both the numerator and the denominator are expressed by numerals of the feminine gender in Ukrainian (since we mean here the word “частина”) in the nominative case: одна сьома (compare in English – one seventh).

In Ukrainian such words as пів, півтора, чверть are also used as numerals. In English they are expressed correspondingly with nouns half, quarter. The numeral пів – is not an independent word, it is usually used with nouns as one whole, and such a noun is always in the genitive case: півдня, піввідра, півроку, піваркуша, пів’яблука. Unlike mentioned above the English half is never combined together with the noun to form one word, though they are considered as the united syntactic word group, in which the noun is in the common case: half a year/ півроку.

In Ukrainian with the mixed-fractional numerals (змішано-дробові числівники) bigger than 2 we use the noun половина instead of пів, e.g. 2½ два з половиною, whereas in English the same word half continues to be used: two and a half.

From the Ukrainian пів numerals півтора, півтори are formed, and in English we have the correspondent word group one and a half and півтораста – in English one hundred and fifty.

In English the word dozen is very often used by counting whereas in Ukrainian the word дюжина is used very seldom. Of interest is also the usage of the separate numeral score in English meaning twenty pieces (двадцять штук). It does not have the plural form similar to words hundred, thousand, e.g.: three score “шістдесят”, four score “вісімдесят”, five score “сто”.

Ordinal numerals are formed from the cardinal ones by adding the suffix - th in English, and in Ukrainian – the adjectival endings –
- ий, -а, -е.

The first four ordinal numerals are created in the contrasted languages not according to general rules: the Ukrainian один – перший from the old base “пьрв” (with the old meaning “передній”), the English one – first from fyrest (the form of the superlative degree of the old English fore meaning “the front”/перед). The numerals другий (compare два) and the second (compare two) are also formed from different stems, the latter is borrowed from the French language. The numerals третій, четвертий and English third also have the changed base in comparison with the corresponding cardinal numerals три, чотири, three [5; 55–56].