Numeral (linguistics)

In linguistics, a numeral is a member of a word class (or sometimes even a part of speech) designating numbers, such as the English word 'two' and the compound 'seventy-seven'. A numeral usually functions in an adjective or in a prounoun. These express numbers which relate to either quantity, sequence, frequency, or fraction.

Numerals may be attributive, as in two dogs, or pronominal, as in I saw two (of them).

Many words of different parts of speech indicate number or quantity. Quantifiers do not enumerate, or designate a specific number, but give another, often less specific, indication of amount. Examples are words such as every, most, least, some, etc. Some times a quantifier can have a definite amount. Examples are words such as five, ten, fifty, one hundred, ect. There are also number words which enumerate but are not a distinct part of speech, such as 'dozen', which is a noun, 'first', which is an adjective, or 'twice', which is an adverb. Numerals enumerate, but in addition have distinct grammatical behavior: when a numeral modifies a noun, it may replace the article: the/some dogs played in the park → twelve dogs played in the park. (Note that *dozen dogs played in the park is not grammatical, so 'dozen' is not a numeral.)

Numerals may be simple, such as 'eleven', or compound, such as 'twenty-three'. They indicate cardinal numbers. However, not all words for cardinal numbers are necessarily numerals. For example, million is grammatically a noun, and must be preceded by an article or numeral itself. In Old Church Slavonic, the cardinal numbers 5 to 10 were feminine nouns; when quantifying a noun, that noun was declined in the genitive plural like other nouns that followed a noun of quantity (one would say the equivalent of "five of people").

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