Morphological characteristics of numerals in English, Russian and Uzbek languages



If we speak about morphological characteristics, the 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 (o’n, десять), hundred (yuz, сто), thousand (ming, тысяча) do not have plural forms: two hundred and fifty, four thousand people, etc., whereas the corresponding homonymous nouns ten (десяток), hundred (сотня), thousand (тысяча) to tens, hundreds of people (yuzlab odamlar), thousands of birds (minglab qushlar), etc.

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:

in English: his second beautiful wife; these four rooms; in Uzbek: uning ikkinchi go’zal rafiqasi; shu to’rt xonalar; in Russian: его вторая красивая жена; эти четире комнати;

in English: her three little children; every second day, etc. in Uzbek: uning uch kichik bolalari; har ikkinchi kun. inRussian: Её трое маленьких детей; Каждий второй день.

If both a cardinal and an ordinal refer to one head-noun the ordinal comes first:

In English: the first three tall girls, the second two grey dogs, etc.

In Uzbek: birinchi uchta bo’yi baland qizlar, ikkinchi ikkita kulrang itlar v. x.k

In Russian: первые три девушки, вторые серые собаки

Nouns premodified by ordinals are used with the definite article only in English: 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 English: asecond man entered, then a third

in Russian: вошел еще один человек, потом еще

in Uzbek: bir kishi kirdi,keyin yana (boshqasi)

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.;

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, (men qaragan birinchi xona beshinchi xona edi) or the second page that he read was page twenty-three (u o’qigan ikkinchi sahifa yigirma uchinchi bet edi),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, (Qirol Genrix VIII — Qirol Genrix sakkizinchi), Peter I — Peter the First, etc.(Pyotr I — Pyotr birinchi)

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(birinchi May,kishilardan biri,ularning ikkisi), etc. If we translate these prepositional phrases into Uzbek, we use not prepositions, but case suffixes like –ni, -ning, -ga, -da, -dan etc.

2) pronouns: every three days, all seven, each fifth,(har uch kun,yettovi, har beshinchisi yoki beshtadan biri)etc.

3) adjectives: the best three of them, the last two weeks, etc.(uchtasidan eng yaxshisi, oxirgi ikki hafta)

4) particles: just five days ago, only two, only three books, he is nearly sixty, etc.(besh kun oldin holos, faqatgina ikki, faqat uch kitoblar, u deyarli oltmishda v. x.k)

The numeral first may combine with the particle very: the very first of them. (ulardan (ning) eng birinchisi)

When they have the function of subject or predicative the numerals are combinable with link verbs, generally the verb to be:

ten were present,o’ntasi bor edi the first was my father,birinchisi mening dadam edi

we are seven, biz yettitamiz she is the second,u ikkinchisi

Occasionally they are combinable with some other link verbs:

two seemed enough, ikkita etarli tuyulardi,

the third appeared to be wounded, uchinchisi yaralangan ko’rinardi

References:

1. Аракин В. Д. Сравнительная типология английского и русского языка. -М: Физматлит, 2005.
2. Башкирцева О. А. Когнитивная основа семантической структуры слова / дис……канд. филол. наук. –Красноярск, 2011.
3. Болдырев, Н. Н. Концептуальное пространство когнитивной лингвистики /Вопросы когнитивной лингвистики, 2004.
4. Виноградов В. В. Слово и значение как предмет историко- лексикологического исследования. / Вопросы языкознания, № 1, 1995.