Morphological characteristics
Numerals do not undergo any morphological changes, that is, they do not have morphological categories. In this they differ from nouns with numerical meaning. Thus the numerals ten (десять), hundred (сто), thousand (тысяча)do not have plural forms:
- two hundred and fifty, four thousand people, etc.,
whereas the corresponding homonymous nounsten (десяток), hundred (сотня), thousand (тысяча) do:
- to count in tens, hundreds of people, thousands of birds, etc.
Patterns of combinability
Numerals combine mostly with nouns and function as their attributes, usually as premodifying attributes. If a noun has several premodifying attributes including a cardinal or an ordinal, these come first, as in:
- three tiny green leaves, seven iron men, the second pale little boy, etc.
The only exception is pronoun determiners, which always begin a series of attributes:
| his second beautiful wife; these four rooms; | her three little children; every second day, etc. |
If both a cardinal and an ordinal refer to one head-nounthe ordinal comes first:
-the first three tall girls, the second two grey dogs, etc.
Nouns premodified by ordinals are used withthe definite article:
- The first men in the moon, the third month, etc.
When used with the indefinite article, they lose their numerical meaning and acquire that of a pronoun (another, one more), as in:
- a second man entered, then a third
(вошел еще один человек, потом еще).
Postmodifying numerals combine with a limited number of nouns. Postmodifying cardinals are combinable with some nouns denoting items of certain sets of things:
- pages, paragraphs, chapters, parts of books, acts and scenes of plays, lessons in textbooks, apartments and rooms, buses or trams (means of transport), grammatical terms, etc.;
room two hundred and three, page ten, bus four, participle one, etc.
Note:
In such cases the cardinals have a numbering meaning and thus differ semantically from the ordinals which have an enumerating meaning. Enumeration indicates the order of a thing in a certain succession of things, while numbering indicates a number constantly attached to a thing either in a certain succession or in a certain set of things. Thus, the first room (enumeration) is not necessarily room one (numbering), etc. Compare:
- the first room I looked into was room five,
or
- the second page that he read was page twenty-three, etc.
Postmodifying ordinals occur in combinations with certain proper names, mostly those denoting the members of well-known dynasties:
-King Henry VIII - King Henry the Eighth,
Peter I - Peter the First, etc.
Mind the position of the article in such phrases. It is always attached to the numeral.
When used as substitutes numerals combinewith various verbs:
-(E.g. I saw five of them. They took twenty).
As head-words modified by other words numerals are combinable with:
1) prepositional phrases:
- the first of May, one of the men, two of them, etc.
2) pronouns:
- every three days, all seven, each fifth, etc.
3) adjectives:
- the best three of them, the last two weeks, etc.
4) particles:
- just five days ago, only two, only three books, he is nearly sixty, etc.
Note:
The numeral first may combine with the particlevery:
- the very first of them.
When they have the function of subject or predicative the numerals are combinable with link verbs, generally the verbto be:
| ten were present, the first was my father | we are seven, she is the second. |
Occasionally they are combinable with some other link verbs:
| two seemed enough, | the third appeared to be wounded. |
Syntactic function
Though cardinals and ordinals have mainly similar syntactic functions they differ in certain details.
The most characteristic function of both is thatof premodifying attribute:
- two rooms, the third person, etc.
In this connection it must be remembered that while the ordinals are used as ordinary attributes, cardinals with the function of an attribute govern the number of the noun they modify:
- one page, but two (three, etc.) pages.
Note 1:
Quite unlike Russian, composite cardinals ending in one (twenty-one, thirty-one, two hundred and one, three hundred and twenty-one, etc.) requirea plural noun:
- twenty-one pages, two hundred and one pages.
Note 2:
In numbering the items of certain sets of things cardinals, not ordinals, are used to modify the nouns denoting these things. The cardinals thus used are always postmodifying. The nouns modified do not take an article:
- page three, lesson one, room thirty-five, etc.
(In Russian both ordinals and cardinals are possible in this case, though ordinals are preferable. Compare:
пятая страница and страница пять,
десятая аудитория and аудитория десять.)
Both cardinals and ordinals may have the functions ofsubject, object, predicative andadverbial modifier of time:
(E.g. Three of us went home. I saw two of them in the forest. They were seven. She got up at five today).
However, in all these cases a noun is always implied, that is, the numeral functions as a substitute for the noun either mentioned in the previous context, or self-evident from the situation. The only case in which the numerals (cardinals) can really have the function of subject, object or predicative is when they are used with their purely abstract force:
- five is more than three; two plus two is four, etc.
Substantivized numerals
Numerals can be substantivized, that is, take formal nominal features: the plural suffix -s, an article, and the ability to combine with adjectives and some other modifiers of nouns.When numerals undergo substantivization not only their morphology is changed, but also their meaning. Thus when the numerals hundred, thousand and million are substantivized they acquire the meaning "a great quantity", as in:
- hundreds of books, thousands of people, millions of insects, etc.
Other numerals, both cardinals and ordinals, can also be substantivized.
Cardinals are substantivized when they name:
1) school marks in Russia
(E.g. He got a two. He got three fives)
Or school marks in Great Britain
(E.g. He got ten. He got three nines last week).
2) sets of persons and things:
They came in twos. They followed in fours. Form fours!
3) playing cards:
the two of hearts, the five of spades, the seven of diamonds, the ten of clubs, three of trumps.
4) boats for a certain number of rowers:
a four, an eight.
5) decades:
in the early sixties, in the late fifties, etc.
The meaning of substantivized ordinals is less affected by substantivization and remains the same:
(E.g. He was the first to come.
She was the fourth to leave).
Chapter VI..The Adverb
General Notion
The adverb is a word denoting circumstances or characteristics which attend or modify an action, state, or quality. It may also intensify a quality or characteristics.
From this definition it is difficult to define adverbs as a class, because they comprise a most heterogeneous group of words, and there is considerable overlap between the class and other word classes. They have many kinds of form, meaning and function. Alongside such undoubtful adverbs as here, now, often, seldom, always, there are many others which also function as words of other classes. Thus, adverbs like dead (dead tired), clear (to get clear away), clean (I've clean forgotten), slow, easy (he would say that slow and easy)coincide with corresponding adjectives (a dead body, clear waters, clean hands). Adverbs like past, above are homonymous with prepositions. There is also a special group of pronominal adverbs when, where, how, why used either as interrogative words or as connectives to introduce subordinate clauses.
Where shall we go? (an interrogative pronominal adverb)
We’ll go where you want (a conjunctive pronominal adverb).
Some adverbs may be used rather like a verb, as in “Up. Jenkins! Down, Peter!” where the first word is like an imperative.
In many cases the border-line between adverbs and words of the other classes is defined syntactically.
He walked past. (Adverb)
He walked past the house. (Preposition)
They took the dog in. (Adverb)
They left the dog in the house. (Preposition)
He did everything slowly but surely. (Adverb)
Surely you know him. (Modal word)
There are three adverbs connected with numerals: once, twice, and thrice (the latter being archaic). They denote measure or frequency. (E.g. She went there once a week. I saw him twice last month. Twice is also used in the structure twice as long, etc. He is twiceas tall as his brother. She is twice as clever).
Beginning with three the idea of frequency or repetition is expressed by the phrases three times, four times; (E.g. He went there four times; he is four times as bigger; she is ten times cleverer).
Morphological composition
Adverbs vary in their structure. There are simple, derived, compound, and composite adverbs.
Simple adverbs:
-after, here, well, now, soon, etc.
Inderived adverbs the most common suffix is-ly, by means of which new adverbs are coined from adjectives and participles:
- occasionally, lately, immediately, constantly, purely, slowly, charmingly, etc.The less common suffixes are the following:
| -wise -ward(s) -fold -like -most -way(s) | clockwise, crabwise, corkscrew wise, education wise onward(s), backward(s), homeward(s), eastward(s) twofold, manifold warlike innermost, outermost longways, sideways |
Of these suffixes, the first two are more productive than the rest. Compound adverbs are formed of two stems: - sometimes, somewhere, everywhere, downstairs, etc. Composite phrasal adverbs consist of two or more word-forms:- a great deal, a little bit, far enough, now and then, from time to time, sort of, kind of, a hell of, a lot of, a great deal of.