LINGUISTIC ATTRIBUTES OF THE ENGLISH NUMERALS AND DENUMERALS

Abstract

The article in question deals with the linguocognitive aspects of the English numerals and denumerals, it focuses upon their definition, aims, methods of investigation, empiric material, formal and semantic and formal modifications and further perspectives. The problem of the semantic deviations of numerals and denumerals is being studied in terms of the contrastive approach. The major stages of numerals background their linguistic attributes: etymological sources, terminology, determinology, discourse, phraseology, deviation and lacunarity. The center of the paper is devoted to the relation between numerals and their derivatives – notional words and syntactic formants. Hypothesis states: the words with common meanings undergo similar modifications. The definitions of objects facts have been extracted from the authentic English dictionaries and literary texts. The touched upon problems have been analyzed by adequate methods. Topicality of the research is determined by the modern trends in linguistics. The objectives of the paper concern the English quantitative words in their evolutionary modifications. The attempt has been made to clarify the status of the investigated units in the lexico-semantic field of quantity. At work is the idea of constant changes on the vectors of convergence and divergence. The results of investigation are of theoretical and practical values for they expand the theory of quantification and render the material for didactic studies. The further investigation envisages the problems of measure and weight words which alongside with numerals make lexico-semantic field of quantity function.