23. the numeral. Cardinal & ordinal numerals. The words of category of state. The interjection. The preposition.
The numeral is a part of speech which indicates number or the order of persons and things in a series.
Accordingly numerals are divided into cardinals (cardinal numerals) and ordinals (ordinal numerals).
Cardinal numerals indicate exact number, they are used in counting. As to their structure, the cardinal numerals from 1 to 12 and 100, 1000, 1,000,000 are simple words (one, two, three, etc., hundred, thousand, million); those from 13 to 19 are derivatives with the suffix ‑teen (thirteen, fourteen, etc.); the cardinal numerals indicating tens are formed by means of the suffix ‑ty (twenty, thirty, etc.). The numerals from 21 to 29, from 31 to 39, etc. are composite: twenty-two, thirty-five, etc.
Such cardinal numerals as hundred, thousand, million may be used with articles (a hundred, a thousand, a million); they may be substantivized and used in the plural (hundreds, thousands, millions). When used after other numerals they do not take ‑s (two hundred times, thirty thousand years etc.). The word million may be used with or without ‑s (two million, two millions). When the word million is followed by some other cardinal numeral only the first variant is possible: two million five hundred inhabitants
Cardinal numerals are used in the function of subject, predicative, object, adverbial modifier and attribute (apposition).
...the young man opposite had long since disappeared. Now the other two got Out-SUBJECT)
Earle Fox was only fifty-four, but he felt timeless and ancient-PREDICATIVE)
And again she saw them, but not four, more like forty laughing, sneering, jeering... -OBJECT)
At eight the gang sounded for supper-ADVFRBIAL MODIFIER)
Four men in their shirt-sleeves stood grouped together on the garden path-ATTRIBUTE)
And he remembered the holidays they used to have the four of them, with a little girl, Rose, to look after the babies-APPOSITION)
Cardinals are sometimes used to denote the place of an object in a series. Cardinals are used in reading indications: line 23, page 275, Chapter X, No. 49, etc.
Ordinal numerals show the order of persons and things in a series.
With the exception of the first three (first, second, third) the ordinal numerals are formed from cardinal numerals by means of the suffix ‑th.
In ordinal groups only the last member of the group takes the ordinal form: (the) sixty-fifth, (the) twenty-third. Ordinal numerals are generally used with the definite article (the first, the fifth, the tenth, etc.). Ordinal numerals may be used with the indefinite article when they do not show a definite order of persons and things in a series:
(“I’ve torn simply miles and miles of the frill,” wailed a third)
As a rule ordinal numerals are used as attributes.
(No, this is my first dance)
But they may also be used as subject, as predicative and as object.
(Then, advancing obliquely towards us, came a fifth-SUBJECT)
(Sooner or later, someone is going to tell you about that damned river, so I might as well be the first-PREDICATIVE)
...she noted a scar on his cheek, another that peeped out from under the hair of the forehead, and a third that ran down and disappeared under the starched collar-OBJECT)
In fractional numbers the numerator is a cardinal and the denominator is a substantivized ordinal: two-thirds, three-sixths.
THE WORDS OF THE CATEGORY OF STATE
The words of the category of state denote the temporary state or condition of persons or things.
(I’m afraid, General, we have to rely on the appeal of the leaflet)
As regards form the words of the category of state have the prefix a-: ablaze, afire, aflame, afoot, afraid, asleep, awake, etc.
They are mainly used in the function of a predicative.
(He is awake!)
Words of the category of state may be used as objective predicatives.
(She was saying that she intended to leave him entirely alone again.)
Words of the category of state may be sometimes used as attributes. But unlike adjectives they cannot be placed before the words they modify. As attributes they may be only used in post-position:
(The father and mother dolls, who sprawled very stiff as though they had fainted in the drawing-room, and their two little children asleep upstairs were really too big for the doll’s house.)
Words of the category of state can be modified by adverbs of degree:
(He immediately came fully awake.)
Words of the category of state may take prepositional indirect objects.
(You were afraid of the war?)
THE INTERJECTION
The interjection is a part of speech which expresses various emotions without naming them.
According to their meaning interjections fall under two main groups, namely emotional interjections and imperative interjections.
1. Emotional interjections express the feelings of the speaker. They are: ah, oh, eh, bravo, alas, etc.
(Oh, bother! I can’t see anyone now. Who is it?)
2. Imperative interjections show the will of the speaker or his order or appeal to the hearer. They are: here, hush, sh-sh, well, come, now, etc.
(Here! I’ve had enough of this. I’m going.)
Interjections may be primary and secondary.
1. Primary interjections are not derived from other parts of speech. Most of them are simple words: ah, oh, eh, pooh, hum, fie, bravo, hush. Only a few primary interjections are composite: heigh-ho! hey-ho! holla-ho! gee-ho!
2. Secondary interjections are derived from other parts of speech. They are homonymous with the words they are derived from. They are: well, now, here, there, come, why, etc.
(Derivative interjections should not be confused with exclamation-words, such as nonsense, shame, good, etc.)
Derivative interjections may be simple: well, here, there, come, etc., and composite: dear me, confound it, hang it, etc.
(Well, I don’t like those mysterious little pleasure trips that he is so fond of taking.)
THE PREPOSITION
The preposition is a part of speech which denotes the relations between objects and phenomena. It shows the relations between a noun or a pronoun and other words.
Usually the preposition is not stressed and stands before the word it refers to.
(Desert moved quickly to the windows.)
Sometimes, however, a preposition may be separated from the word it refers to and placed at the end of the sentence or clause. In that case it is stressed.
(The book was in the table, not on it.)
As to their morphological structure prepositions fall under the following groups:
(1) simple (in, on, at, for, with, etc.);
(2) derivative (behind, below, across, along, etc.);
(3) compound (inside, outside, within, without, etc.);
(4) composite (because of, in front of, in accordance with, etc.).
According to their meaning prepositions may be divided into prepositions of place and direction (in, on, below, under, between, etc.), time (after, before, at, etc.), prepositions expressing abstract relations (отвлеченные отношения) (by, with, because of, with a view to, etc.).
The lexical meaning of some prepositions is quite concrete (e. g. in, below, between, before, after, till, etc.), while that of some other prepositions may be weakened to a great extent (e. g. to, by, of).
Some prepositions are homonymous with adverbs and conjunctions.
For instance, the prepositions after and before are homonymous with the adverbs after and before and with the conjunctions after and before.
(There is an old saying that if a man has not fallen in love before forty, he had better not fall in love after-ADVERB)
(He did not write to her, and it was almost a year before he began to see her again-CONJUNCTION)
Some prepositions (on, in, by, over, off, up) are homonymous with postpositions.
A preposition as well as a postposition does not perform any independent function in the sentence. But while a preposition denotes the relation between objects and phenomena, a postposition is part of a composite verb. A preposition is not usually stressed, while a postposition usually bears the stress.
