Patterns of combinability. Morphological characteristics

Morphological characteristics

The ordinals

§ 230. Among the ordinals there are also simple, derivative and compound words.

The simple ordinals are first, second and third.

The derivative ordinals are derived from the simple and derivative cardinals by means of the suffix -th:

four-fourth, ten-tenth, sixteen-sixteenth, twenty-twentieth, etc.

Before the suffix -th the final у is replaced by ie:

thirty - thirtieth, etc.

Mind the difference in the spelling of the stems in the following cardinals and ordinals:

five-fifth, nine-ninth.

The compound ordinals are formed from composite cardinals. In this case only the last component of the compound numeral has the form of the ordinal:

twenty-first, forty-second, sixty-seventh, one hundred and first, etc.

§ 231. 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 nouns ten (десяток), hundred (сотня), thousand (тысяча) do:

to count in tens, hundreds of people, thousands of birds, etc.

§ 232. 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-noun the ordinal comes first:

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

Nouns premodified by ordinals are used with the 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:

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 particle very:

the very first of them.

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

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