1. Adjective as a part of speech: general characteristics.

Grammatical
categories of adjective

Adjective is a part of speech which is characterized by the following features:

(1) lexico-grammatical meaning of properties of substances such as size, colour, position in space,
material, psychic state of person etc.;

(2) typical stem-building elements, cf. -able (capable), -al (formal), -ial (presidential), -fold (manifold),
-ful (beautiful), -ic (laconic), -ile (futile), -ish (selfish), -less (meaningless), -ous (industrious), -some
(tiresome) etc.;

(3) right-hand combinability with nouns or noun substitutes (nice-looking lady/ симпатична дівчина)
and left hand combinability with link-verbs (she’s beautiful/дитя було маленьким), adverbs (quite
interesting/ досить цікавий);

(4) functions of an attribute (a nice flower/ гарна квітка) and predicative complement (she grew
nervous/вона стала нервовою);

(5) category of degree of comparison (see 5.1.4.).

In both languages adjectives as a class of lexemes are subdivided

into qualitative adjectives which directly express some characteristic
features and qualities of some objects or substances (якісні, що
безпосередньо передають ознаку предмета) (e.g., large, white, heavy;
великий, білий, важкий) and relative adjectives that express some
characteristics bound with the relation to some other object or phenomenon
(відносні, що передають ознаку, зв’язану з відношенням до іншого
предмета чи поняття (e.g., former, wooden, silken; колишній, дерев’яний,
шовковий). Both in English and in Ukrainian the division line between
qualitative and relative adjectives is a conventional (умовний) one.

and possessive-relative which denote some relation between the object,

designated by the noun, and the person or geographical name expressed by
the modifying adjective with the suffixes -ic, -іan та -івськ-/-овськ-, -зьк-, cf.
Shevchenkian/шевченківський, Shakespearian/ шекспірівський,
дніпровський, запорізький.

The adjective expresses the meaning of property of a substance. It means that for every
A used in a sentence some noun is used or implied, whose property it denotes, such as
its material, colour, dimensions, position, state, and other characteristics, both
permanent and temporary. So, unlike nouns, A’s do not have a full
nominative(назывная) value. Words like “long” or “hospitable” cannot function in the
sentence independently from a collocation showing what is long and who is hospitable.
The semantically bound character of the adjective is emphasized in English by the use of
the substitute “one” in the absence of the notional head-noun in the phrase: I could see
big figures, but I couldn’t see the little ones on the chart.

Form the syntactical point of view, A’s can combine with nouns, usually in pre-position,
and occasionally in post-position: “times immemorial” (usually these are borrowings
from Romanic languages), with link-verbs, both functional and notional: He was guilty,
He was found guilty; with modifying adverbs. I can be combined with nouns with a
preposition (fond of, jealous of, curious of, angry with etc) Many of such adjectival
collocations have essentially a verbal meaning: to be fond of – love, to be jealous of –
envy, etc.

In the sentence the A’s perform the function of an attribute and a predicative. Of the
two, the more specific function of the A is that of an attribute, since the function of a
predicative can be performed by a noun as well.

To the derivational features of A’s belong a number of suffixes and prefixes, of which the
most important are: -ful (hopeful) , - less (jobless), ish (bluish), ous (famous), ive
(decorative), ic (basic), -ly (friendly), -un, im.

The English language has a considerably fewer number of relative adjectives

than in Ukrainian. Especially few are those adjectives that denote some
material: wooden (дерев’яний), woolen (шерстяний), silken
(шовковий) and some others. Meanings rendered in the Ukrainian language
with the help of relative adjectives are very often expressed in English by
nouns in the common case in the function of an attribute, e.g.: a stone house
(кам’яний будинок), an iron bridge (залізний міст), the London museums
(лондонські музеї), the Kyiv underground (київське метро).

The peculiar feature of the English language is the existence of quantitative

adjectives (кількісні прикметники): little, few (мало), much, many (багато).
The Ukrainian language does not have such adjectives and the
corresponding meanings are rendered with the help of adverbs or indefinite
numerals (неозначені числівники: кілька, декілька, багато etc. present
only in the Ukrainian language).

The Ukrainian language in its turn also possesses a peculiar group of

adjectives, not present in English. By their meaning these adjectives,
called possessive adjectives (присвійні прикметники), express belonging
of some object to this or that person or creature, from the name of whom
they are created, with the suffixes - ин/-ін-, -ів/-їв-, -ов/-ев-, -ач-/-яч-, -цьк/-зьк-
e.g.: батьків, братів, сестрин. Андріїв, Ганнин, учителева, шкільне.
The corresponding notions are rendered in English usually with the help of
the possessive case of a noun (father’s (батьків), sister’s (сестрин)) or
with the help of preposition + noun combination (of the father (батьків), of
the sister (сестрин)).

All the three groups of Ukrainian adjectives – qualitative, relative and

possessive – have their own semantic and grammatical peculiarities.

Qualitative adjectives are different in meanings. They can render: duration in

space (протяжність у просторі: довгий, вузький, глибокий), in time (у
часі: повільний, швидкий, довгий), spiritual or physical properties of living
beings (духовні чи фізичні властивості живих істот: талановитий,
інтелектуальний, незграбний, хворий, гарний), peculiarities perceived
by sense perception organs (ознаки, що сприймаються органами
чуття: гарячий, гіркий, запашний, твердий). Qualitative adjectives vary
also according to their grammatical peculiarities. In majority of cases they
have degrees of comparison (високий – вищий – найвищий); create pairs
of antonyms (гіркий – солодкий, вузький – широкий); serve as word-
building stems for abstract nouns (гіркий – гіркота, доблесний –
доблесть) and adverbs with suffixes -о, -е (далекий – далеко, гарячий –
гаряче); as well as they can be combined with adverbs of measure and
degree (дуже холодний, завжди уважний, вічно молодий).

According to their morphological structure adjectives are divided in Ukrainian

into two groups: full adjectives (повні або членні) – these are adjectives with
flexions, e.g.: певний, повний, and short adjectives (короткі або нечленні)
– without flexions, e.g.: винен, годен, повен, певен. Short forms of
adjectives are used in parallel with the form of full adjectives and only in the
nominative case singular of masculine gender. They have lost their system
of declension and thus are indeclinable now. In modern Ukrainian short
adjectives are used mainly in the function of the nominative part of predicate
(Скільки я вам винен? Будинок повен людей. Рад би ще раз
побачити). They are practically not met in the function of an attribute (the
exceptions are some uses in the language of folklore or poetry: ясен місяць,
дрібен дощик, зелен сад) [5; 52].

5.1.3. Stem structure

As far as their structure is concerned, English and Ukrainian adjectives fall

into simple, derivative, compound and composite.

English has a great number of simple-stem adjectives, cf. big, red, bold,
black, clean, high, old, young, thin, wet, small, tall. Such adjectives are rather
rare in Ukrainian, cf. рад, жив.

English derivative-stem adjectives are built with the help of the following
suffixes: -al/-ial (annual, bacterial), -able/-ible (capable, sensible), -ary/-ory
(contrary, advisory), -an/-ian (urban, Ukrainian), -ant/-ent (defiant, divergent),
-ern (eastern), -ful (useful), -ic/-ical (basic, political), -ish (bookish), -ive
(active), -less (careless), -ous (tedious), -ow (narrow), -ward (westward), -y
(milky). Ukrainian derivative suffixes include: -ськ-/-зьк- (товариський,
паризький), -цьк- (козацький), -ан-/-ян- (гречаний, кропив’яний), -ов-/-
ев-/-єв- (березовий, грушевий, баєвий).

Allomorphic are Ukrainian diminutive suffixes, cf. -еньк- (гарненький), -

есеньк- (малесенький), -ісіньк- (чистісінький) -юсіньк- (тонюсінький), and
augmentative suffixes, сf. -езн- (величезний), -енн- (здоровенний), -ач-/-
яч- (добрячий), -ущ-/-ющ- (багатющий). Similarly allomorphic are Ukrainian
possessive suffixes. Isomorphism is observed in the use of English and
Ukrainian prefixes, cf. ab- /sub-// а-/суб- (abnormal/subnormal –
анормальний/субнормальний), anti-/анти- (antinational – антинародний),
arch-/архі- (archbishopric – архієпископський), counter-/ проти-
(counteractive – протидіючий), ultra-/ультра- (ultraleftist/ультра-лівацький).

Highly productive are Ukrainian prefixes of prepositional origin, cf. без- (без
думки – бездумний, до- (до центру – доцентровий), від- (від центру –
відцентровий), на- (на стіл – настільний), під- (під горою – підгірний),
перед- (перед святом – передсвятковий), за- (за Дніпром –
задніпровський). Such prefixes partly correspond to English adverbial
postpositions, cf. mention above – above-mentioned, to grow over –
overgrown.

Compound-stem adjectives are found in both contrasted languages, cf.

fourstoried – чотирьохповерховий, all-national – загальнонаціональний,
all-steel –суцільно сталевий, all-powerful – всемогутній, many-sided –
багатосторонній.

Some compound adjective do not correlate in their structure, cf. breast-high

– такий, що дістає до грудей, ice-cold – холодний як лід.

Composite-stem adjectives are practically not found in either language

English adjectives do not have any endings and consist of the “pure” base,
so according to their structure they are similar to Ukrainian short adjectives.
Nevertheless, the loss of flexions has not been reflected on their
grammatical characteristics. Deprived of any morphological means of
expressing syntactic relations, English adjectives still perform two
characteristic for this part of speech syntactic functions – the function of an
attribute and the function of a nominal part of the compound predicate.
Whereas Ukrainian short adjectives, having lost their flexions, lost as well a
part of their expressive abilities.

The English adjective as a part of speech is characterized by the following

typical features:

1. The lexico-grammatical meaning of “attributes (of substances) / quality (of

substances)”. It should be understood that by attributes we mean different
properties of substances, such as their size (large, small), colour (red, blue),
position in space (upper, inner), material (wooden, woolen), psychic state of
persons (happy, furious), etc.

2. The typical stem-building affixes -ful, -less, -ish, -ous, -ive,

-ic, un-, pre-, in-, etc.
3. The morphological category of the degrees of comparison (The absence
of the category of number distinguishes English adjectives from adjectives in
all other Germanic languages).

4. The characteristic combinability: right-hand connections with nouns (a

beautiful girl), and the so-called “prop word” one (the grey one); left-hand
connections with link-verbs (… is clever), adverbs, mostly those of degree (a
very clever boy).

5. Its typical syntactic functions are those of an attribute and a predicative

complement.

The Ukrainian adjective is a notional part of speech which renders some

characteristic of an object (but not that of a process – непроцесуальна
ознака предмета) expressing it via the grammatical categories of gender,
number and case. In a sentence it performs the functions of an attribute and
a nominal part of a compound nominal predicate.

Following is the comparison of the basic features of English and Ukrainian

adjectives.

1. The lexico-grammatical meanings are essentially the same.

2. The Ukrainian adjective has a greater variety of stem-building affixes than

its English counterpart.

The so-called “suffixes of subjective appraisal” (as in дрібнесенький,

багатющий, синюватий, величезний etc.) are alien to the English
adjective (the only exception is -ish in whitish, reddish, etc.).

3.1. The English adjective does not have grammatical categories of gender,
number and case, which were lost already in the Middle English period. In
Ukrainian vice versa all adjectives are changed according to genders and
numbers. Besides, all full adjectives (and we have the majority of them) have
their own system of case endings. Similar to nouns, adjectives are changed
according to six cases. Besides, according to the character of the final
consonant of a stem they are divided into hard (тверда група: дужий,
червоний) and soft(м’яка група: нижній, безкраїй) groups. In plural all
adjectives lose the gender differentiation (родове розрізнення) and have
similar endings in all three genders.

All the mentioned categories of Ukrainian adjectives are expressed in a

rather peculiar way. Speaking about Ukrainian nouns, their categories of
gender, number and case are to this or that extent determined by the
meaning of words; whereas in adjectives they are reflected only according to
the form of a word which the adjective is combined with. Thus, the categories
of gender (довгий – довга – довге), number (довгий – довгі) and case
(довгий, довгого, довгому, etc.) of Ukrainian adjectives are merely forms of
grammatical relation of adjectives regarding the modified words, the forms of
adjective agreement with them (Отже, категорії роду, числа і відмінка в
український прикметниках – це не що інше, як форми граматичного
відношення прикметників до означуваних слів, форми узгодження
прикметників з ними). English adjectives have lost any forms of
coordination with modified words that is why it is clear that they have lost
simultaneously categories of gender, number and case. The only category
Ukrainian and English adjectives have in common is the category of degrees
of comparison.

Therefore, adjectival grammemesin English are monosemantic (i.e. having

but one grammatical meaning), while in Ukrainian an adjective grammeme is
usually polysemantic, e.g. the grammeme represented by розумна carries
the grammatical meanings of “feminine gender”, “singular number”,
“nominative case” and “positive degree”. Nevertheless, the synthetic
comparative degree form (сильніше, красивіше, etc.) is monosemantic in
Ukrainian as well.

3.2. In Ukrainian as well as in English the category of the degrees of

comparison is represented in three-member opposemes, but there are some
distinctions.

a) The “positive degree” is unmarked in English, whereas it is marked in

Ukrainian (compare: red, червон-ий). Taking into consideration that more
than 90% of all adjectives in speech belong to positive grammemes, we may
say that in overwhelming majority of cases the form of an English adjective
does not signal to what part of speech the word belongs. In the Ukrainian
language every full adjective is marked. It shows by its form that it is an
adjective.

b) The formations більш цікавий, найбільш красивий resemble the

analytical forms more interesting, the most beautiful, but they can hardly be
regarded as analytical forms since they are not in complementary distribution
with the corresponding synthetic forms. Більш цікавий and цікавіший are
rather stylistic synonyms.

3.3. In both languages there are qualitative and relative adjectives. In both
languages relative adjectives and some qualitative ones have no opposites
of comparison, i.e. they form the subclass of non-comparables. Despite the
mentioned similarities there are some differences between the two
languages.

a) The proportion of relative adjectives is greater in Ukrainian. In English

“common case” nouns often render the meanings of Ukrainian relative
adjectives, e.g.: господарські витрати – household expenses, настільна
лампа – a table lamp, etc.
 b) in Ukrainian there is a peculiar group of possessiveadjectives (сестрин,
Настин, мамин) having no English counterparts.

4. The combinability of adjectives is to some extent similar in the two

languages. Yet, there are some differences. In English one can speak only of
two levels of combinability: lexical and lexico-grammatical. In Ukrainian
grammatical combinability is of great importance too. Compare: білий стіл,
біла стеля, білих стін, etc.

5. In both languages the typical functions of adjectives in the sentence are

those of attribute (white wall – біла стіна) and predicative or the nominal
part of a compound nominal predicate (This girl is beautiful. – Ця
дівчина прекрасна.).

Substantivization

In many languages adjectives can become nouns (ученый, рабочий, мороженое). This
means of word building is called conversion or zero-derivation. Substantivized
adjectives acquire grammatical features of noun – the plural form and the genitive case
(natives, sensitives, cutes, relative’s). They can also have articles.

On the other hand, among the substuntivized adjectives there is a set characterized by
hybrid lexico-grammatical features: the poor, the rich, the killed, the wounded. The have
an incomplete set of the part-of-speech characteristics of either nouns or adjectives. Like
nouns, the words are used in the article form; like nouns, they express the category of
number: they have two subgroups – pluralia tantum (the English, the rich), and
singularia tantum (the invisible, the abstract), but their article and number forms are
rigid, not subject to change. This group is open, as this means of word building is
productive.

When adjectives function as nouns denoting groups of people or things they are called
substantivized adjectives. They can be partially substantivized (i.e. acquiring only some
of the morphological characteristics of nouns) or fully substantivized (i.e. can be used
with all articles).

MEANING FORM ARTICLE VERB EXAMPLE

PARTIALLY

- abstract Sing. the sing. the beautiful, the unknown.

notions
- groups of
persons

pl. the rich, the blind, the old

WHOLLY

- languages Sing. zero sing. Russian; the English we use;

(treated the, a His was a nervous, graphic English
as abstract
uncounts)

- persons Sing. a sing. an ordinary ― ordinaries

(social, & pl. the & a liberal ― liberals
political, zero pl. an Indian ― Indians
national, a private ― privates
etc.
characteristics)
treated as
counts

- colours Sing. zero sing. grey; the grey of the earth;

(uncounts, & the, a & pl. The trees were turning yellows and
shades – pl. reds.
counts)

- studies and Pl. zero sing. finals, practicals;

examinations the & pl. politics, phonetics, mathematics

- substances, Pl. zero pl. (& movables, valuables, greens,

collections of the sing.) chemical(s)
things

Note 1: When a substantivized adjective denotes a group of people (e.g. the rich, the
wise, etc.), it is always in the plural. If we want to indicate a single person or a number
of persons, we must add a noun.

The old man receives a pension.

The young man is fishing.

+Note 2: Some adjectives denoting nationalities and ending in – (i)sh: British, English,
Irish, Welsh; in –ch: Dutch, French and in –ese: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and
the adjective Swiss are used with the definite article to form a substantivized adjective in
the plural: the English, the Japanese. In other cases we should use the + the plural
form: the Canadians, the Russians, the Americans.

Adjectivisation of nouns
A noun may stand before another noun and modify it: speech sound, peace treaty, business
contract. The observation that these nouns lose the ability of forming plural and have articles
proves that they possess the features of adjectives. They also have the meaning of property, not a
substance, and they function as attributes. This can also be illustrated by the difference between
such combinations with proper nouns as “Moscow’s theatres”, “Repin’s pictures” and Moscow
region, the Tretyakov Galery. The second type clearly lost their substantival features.

Allomorphism between English and Ukrainian adjectives lies in the fact that Ukrainian adjectives, unlike
English, have gender, case and number inflexions. Most of the qualitative and relative adjectives belong
to the first declension and split into ard and soft consonant groups. Possessive adjectives have their own
inflections.
The only change that can be undergone by English adjectives is the change
according to comparison degrees. Therefore the category of comparison – is
now the only grammatical category which is common for English and
Ukrainian adjectives.

The category of the degrees of comparison of adjectives is the system of

opposemes (like long-longer-longest, довгий-довший-найдовший) showing
quantitative distinctions of qualities. More exactly, it shows whether the
adjective denotes the property of some substance absolutely or relatively as
a higher or the highest amount of the property in comparison with that of
some (or all) other substances. Accordingly we speak in both languages of
the “positive” (long, good, beautiful, довгий, хороший,
красивий), “comparative”(longer, better, more beautiful, довший, кращий,
красивіший/більш красивий) and “superlative” (longest, best, most
beautiful, найдовший, найкращий, найкрасивіший/найбільш красивий)
degrees.

Nevertheless, there are certain peculiarities in both languages concerning

the means of the degree of comparison expression, namely the peculiarities
of the manifestation of opposition underlying this category.

Thus, as far as English adjectives are concerned their positive degree is not

marked. We may speak of a zero morpheme in this case. The “comparative”
and the “superlative” degrees are built up either synthetically (by affixation or
suppletivity) or analytically, which mainly depends on the phonetic structure
of the stem, not on its meaning. If the stem is monosyllabic, or disyllabic with
a stress on the second syllable or ending in -er, -y, -le, -ow, the comparative
and the superlative degrees are usually built up synthetically by adding the
suffixes -er and -est respectively, e.g.: bright-brighter-brightest.

In all other cases the comparative and superlative degrees are formed
analytically with the help of the word-morphemes more and most,
e.g.: cheerful – more cheerful – most cheerful.

Suppletive opposemes are few in number but of very frequent occurrence,

e.g.: good – better – best, bad – worse – worst.

The quantitative pronominal adjectives (or adjective pronouns) many,

much and little form opposites of comparison in a similar way: many/much –
more, most, little – less – least.

Some scholars (V. Zhigadlo, I. Ivanova, L. Iofic) treat more

beautiful and (the) most beautiful not as analytical forms, but as free
syntactical combinations of adverbs and adjectives. One of their arguments
is that less and least form combinations with adjectives similar to those
with more and most, e.g. more beautiful – less beautiful, the most beautiful –
the least beautiful. The mentioned similarity is however superficial [24; 75–
77].

A.I. Smirnitsky, following O. Jespersen, thinks that there is good ground to

speak of two forms of comparison only: the positive degree and the relative
degree which exists in two varieties – the comparative degree and the
superlative degree [24; 80].

As we know, with regard to the category of the degrees of comparison

adjectives fall under two lexico-grammatical
subclasses: comparables and non-comparables. The nucleus of the latter
is composed of derived adjectives like wooden, Crimean, mathematical, etc.
denoting some relation to the phenomena the basic stems refer to. Thus a
wooden house is “a house of wood”, Crimean weather is “weather typical of
the Crimea”, etc. These adjectives are called relative as distinct from all
other adjectives called qualitative.

Most English qualitative adjectives build up opposemes of comparison, but

some do not:

a) adjectives that in themselves express the highest degree of a quality,

e.g.: supreme, extreme;

b) those having the suffix -ish which indicates the degree of a quality,

e.g. reddish, whitish;

c) those denoting qualities which are not compatible with the idea of
comparison, e.g.: deaf, dead, lame, perpendicular.

Naturally, all the adjectives which have no comparative and superlative

opposites are outside the category of comparison, but they are united by the
oblique or lexico-grammatical meaning of the positive degree [24; 79].

Therefore, an English adjective lexeme may contain three words at most

(strong – stonger – strongest) representing three grammemes. The fourth
grammeme contains words with the oblique meaning of the “positive degree”
(deaf, vertical, wooden, etc.). There are no oblique meanings of the
“comparative” and the “superlative” degrees in English that is words
like calmer, bravest have always “positive degree” opposites [24; 81].

Speaking about Ukrainian adjectives, here the category of degrees of

comparison is similarly the ability to render some characteristic feature in
different qualitative dimensions (вияв ознаки в різних кількісних вимірах).
The positive degree of Ukrainian adjectives is characterized by rendering a
certain quality as it is (зелений луг, блакитне небо). The comparative
degree acquires a certain relative comparative meaning (розумніший, ніж
інші). The adjectives of the superlative degree render the complete absolute
advantage of one object upon the other (найактивніші студенти на
курсі). The difference between Ukrainian and English adjectives, first of all,
lies in the form of expression of degrees of comparison.

Ukrainian comparative degree adjectives have two forms of expression – the

simple (synthetic) and the composite (analytical) ones (проста і складена).

The simple form of the comparative degree is formed in the following way:
the base of the positive degree is combined with suffixes -іш, -ш and the
case or gender ending (біл-ий, біл-іш-ий, біл-іш-і). Some adjectives have
the suppletive foms of formation (гарний – кращий).

The composite form of the comparative degree is formed with the help of
words більш/менш and the positive degree adjective.

Ukrainian superlative degree adjectives have three forms of expression –

simple, complex and composite (проста, складна і складена).

The simple form is created from the comparative degree form with the help
of the prefix най-: вищий – найвищий.

The complex form is combining of the superlative degree form with

particles як, що: якнайдовший, щонайсильніший.

The composite form is formed with the help of using words-

antonyms найбільш/найменш with the positive degree form: найбільш
вибагливий, найменш примхливий.

The synthetic form of the superlative degree adjectives can acquire

the elative meanings, that is render the largest degree of some quality
without comparing it with qualities of other objects, e.g.: найширші кола
читачів, без найменших зусиль.

Ukrainian relative and possessive adjectives do not have features

characteristic of Ukrainian qualitative adjectives that is they do not form
degrees of comparison, they cannot combine with adverbs, and they do not
have antonymous counterparts [15; 134–142].

Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that by expression of this category

English and Ukrainian adjectives have a lot in common.

Since the category of comparison renders the degree of intensity of some

characteristics, expressed by an adjective, it is expressed only by qualitative
adjectives in both languages (in the English language also by quantitative
adjectives).

Both languages have three degrees of comparison – the positive, the

comparative and the superlative ones (звичайний, вищий і найвищий). The
comparison can express both the increasing intensity of some characteristics
(long–longer–the longest; довгий–довший–найдовший) or the decreasing
intensity (interesting–less interesting–the least interesting; цікавий–менш
цікавий–найменш цікавий). Degrees of comparison in both languages are
created synthetically and analytically.

The synthetic way of comparison creation is carried out with the help of
affixes, but differently in each language. In English the comparative and the
superlative degrees are formed with the help of suffix adding (er, -est) to the
form of the positive degree. In the Ukrainian language the comparative
degree is formed with the help of adding the suffix -ш or -іш to the root
(ширший, біліший), and the superlative is formed from the comparative
degree by adding the prefix най-(найширший, найбіліший).

The analytical way of degree expression, both according to the increasing

and the decreasing intensity of characteristic, is formed similarly in both
languages: convenient – more convenient – (the) most convenient, зручний
– більш зручний – найбільш зручний. The synthetic way of comparison
building according to the decreasing intensity of some characteristic is
absent in both languages.

There are some peculiarities in the usage of synthetic and analytical forms of
comparison in both languages. In English the synthetic forms are created
only from one-syllable and partially two-syllable adjective (long, pretty),
whereas the analytical way is used to form the comparison of only
polysyllabic adjectives (interesting, important). In Ukrainian the usage of this
or that way of comparison formation does not depend on the quantity of
syllables in the adjective. Both synthetic and analytical forms can be used as
parallel ones (зручніший – більш зручний). The choice of this or that form is
as a rule dictated by stylistic tasks, but in general synthetic forms of
comparison are more spread that analytical ones.

In both languages there is a certain group of adjectives the degrees of

comparison of which are formed in a suppletive way (that is from another
base), compare: in Ukrainian великий–більший–найбільший, малий–
менший–найменший, поганий–гірший–найгірший, хороший–
кращий (or ліпший)–найкращий (найліпший) and in English many/much–
more–the most, little–less–the least, bad–worse–the worst, good–better–the
best.

In Ukrainian the forms of comparative and superlative degrees are changed,

the same as forms of the positive degree, according to genders, numbers
and cases in correspondence with the forms of the noun with which they are
connected. In English forms of all degrees of comparison of adjectives are
similarly indeclinable.
In both languages the form of the superlative degree can be used with the
so-called elative meaning (елятивне значення) (elative – is the absolute
superlative degree). It renders the maximum measure of quality without the
comparison with other objects, e.g.: найглибша повага, найсуворіша
заборона, a most interesting theory, a most clever boy. As it is obvious from
the examples in Ukrainian in such cases the synthetic form of the superlative
degree is usually used, and in the English language vice versa only the
analytical form but with the indefinite article instead of the definite one.

The peculiar form of Ukrainian adjectives is the strengthened superlative

degree (підсилений найвищий ступінь) formed by putting together of the
superlative degree with the strengthening particle як- or що-: якнайкращий,
якнайбільший, якнайрозумніший, щонайкращий, щонайбільший,
щонайрозумніший. These forms are also widely used in the elative
meaning.

One more peculiar feature of the Ukrainian language in comparison with the
English one is the wide usage of qualitative adjectives with two types of
suffixes, that is those having the diminutive meaning, and those expressing
some sort of augmentative meaning (-есеньк-, -ісіньк-, -юсіньк-, -еньк-,
-езн-, -енн-), as well as with the prefix пре-, e.g.: малесенький,
тонесенький, білісінький, чистісінький, тонюсінький, манюсінький,
величезний, широчезний, прегарний, предобрий. Such adjectives already
by themselves render the degree of the quality expression in one object
without the need to compare it with other objects that have a similar
characteristic, that is why they do not build degrees of comparison.

Similarly in the English language adjectives with the suffix -ish do not form
degrees of comparison (greenish (зеленуватий), darkish (темнуватий)),
since they by themselves express week degree of the characteristic.

In general in English there is a considerably fewer number of adjectives with

emotional suffixes, that is why meanings which are rendered in Ukrainian by
caressing forms, are rendered in English in a descriptive way with the help of
defining word combinations (означальні словосполучення)
(e.g.: білісінький – very (extremely) white)
 Numeral as a part of speech: general characteristics

Numeral is a part of speech which is characterized by the following features:

(1) lexico-grammatical meaning of number;

(2) typical stem-building elements, cf. -teen (fifteen), -ty (twenty), -th (fifth); -
дцять (двадцять), -надцять (дванадцять);

(3) right-hand combinability with nouns, articles (the four days), adverbs (the
two below/ahead; двоє внизу/попереду), left-hand combinability with
pronouns (all the three, some five or so; усі четверо), bilateral combinability
with prepositions (two from ten; два з десяти);

(4) functions of an attribute (three girls/три дівчини), predicative complement

(she came third/вона прийшла першою), subject (The first ten have
arrived/Перші десятеро приїхали), adverbial modifier (They ran four and
four/ Вони бігли по чотири).

In both languages numerals are divided into cardinal(кількісні

числівники – one, two, один, два) and ordinal(порядкові числівники –the
first, the second, перший, другий). Ukrainian cardinal numerals have the
peculiar group of indefinite numerals (неозначені числівники): кілька,
декілька, багато, чимало, стільки, кільканадцять, кількадесят. 

(3) fractionals, denoting parts of a whole, cf. two tenth; дві десятих.

Besides Ukrainian numerals possess such a peculiar subgroup as collective

numerals (збірні числівники – двоє, обоє, троє, четверо), denoting a
certain quantity of objects as one whole. These numerals are created from
the base of the corresponding cardinal numerals with the help of the suffix of
collectiveness (суфікс збірності) -ер+о. Collective numerals denote
numbers within two tens and the numeral тридцять. They can have
synonymous forms, e.g.: двоє (двійко), четверо (четвірко),
сімнадцятеро. Besides, the following words are included into this
group: обоє, обидва, обидві [15; 155]. One more peculiarity of the system of
Ukrainian numerals is the caressing forms or diminutive forms of collective
numerals (пестливі форми збірних числівників): двійко, двойко, двоєчко,
трійко, четвірко, обойко and others. The English language does not have
the collective numerals and the diminutive forms are met only by nouns
(sonny, Johny). Some meanings of indefinite quantity are expressed here
with the help of quantitative adjectives and adverbs (кількісні прикметники
та прислівники): many, much, few, little, a little.

indefinite cardinal numerals denoting indefinite number, cf. кількасот, кількадесят,

кільканадцять/кільканадцятеро.
The basis of counting in both languages is the decimal system (в основі
лічби обох мов лежить десяткова система). That is why the formation
structure of numerals’ system does not have a big difference. As to
their stem structure English and Ukrainian numerals fall into:

1) Simple or root numerals (прості числівники), such as one, two, three (in

English from one to twelve), один, два, три (in Ukrainian from one to ten
and the numeral ‘сорок’).

2) Derivative numerals (похідні числівники) formed with the help of the

suffixes -teen (from thirteen to nineteen –these numerals have the double
stress: 'four'teen), -ty (from twenty to ninety) in English. In Ukrainian the
numerals from 11 to 19 are formed by the way of adding the suffix –
надцять (which is created from the word group “на десяте” –одинадцять)
to numerals of the first ten. Ukrainian numerals denoting tens are formed
with -дцять (тридцять). Both suffixes (English -ty and Ukrainian –
-дцять) have in the bases of their meaning “ten”/“десять”. The exceptions
in Ukrainian are only two numerals сорок and дев’яносто.

formed with the help of the suffixes -teen and -ty (cardinals) and -th (ordinals) in English and -надцять,
-дцять (cardinals), in Ukrainian, thirteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty; тринадцять, п'ятнадцять, 30
двадцять

In both languages numerals мільйон–million, мільярд–milliard are borrowed

and have in their structure the Latin root “thousand”/ “тисяча” (mille). The
peculiarity of English numerals hundred, thousand, million is the fact that
they do not have the plural form, when they are placed after the cardinal
numerals bigger than 1, e.g.: two hundred/двісті, three thousand/три
тисячі, four million/чотири мільйони.

3) Compound numerals (складні числівники) in English (from twenty-

one to ninety-nine);

сompound-stem, cf. кількадесят, кількасот, триста; compoundderivative, cf. twenty-one, forty-three,

three-ninth, twenty-fifth; три двадцятих;

4) Composite numerals (складені числівники), such as nine hundred and

three in English and in Ukrainian двадцять один, вісімсот вісімдесят are
formed in both languages according to the general principle. By forming of
English numerals higher than 100 it is necessary to use the conjunction
“and”: two hundred and forty eight. In Ukrainian such numerals are created in
the same way as the numerals till 100: сто два, двісті двадцять п’ять.

Fractional numerals (дробові числівники) have as well similar way of

formation. The difference is that in Ukrainian the cardinal numeral for the
numerator (кількісний числівник для чисельника) is in the nominative case
and is combined with the ordinal for the denominator (порядковий для
знаменника), which is in the genitive case plural: п’ять шостих. In English
numerals do not have the category of case, but the ordinal numeral for the
denominator is substantivized and acquires the plural form (when the
numeral is bigger than 1): five sixths. When we have “one” in the numerator,
then both the numerator and the denominator are expressed by numerals of
the feminine gender in Ukrainian (since we mean here the word “частина”)
in the nominative case: одна сьома (compare in English – one seventh).

In Ukrainian such words as пів, півтора, чверть are also used as

numerals. In English they are expressed correspondingly with nouns half,
quarter. The numeral пів – is not an independent word, it is usually used with
nouns as one whole, and such a noun is always in the genitive case: півдня,
піввідра, півроку, піваркуша, пів’яблука. Unlike mentioned above the
English half is never combined together with the noun to form one word,
though they are considered as the united syntactic word group, in which the
noun is in the common case: half a year/ півроку.

In Ukrainian with the mixed-fractional numerals (змішано-дробові

числівники) bigger than 2 we use the noun половина instead of пів, e.g.
2½ два з половиною, whereas in English the same word half continues to
be used: two and a half.

From the Ukrainian пів numerals півтора, півтори are formed, and in

English we have the correspondent word group one and a
half and півтораста – in English one hundred and fifty.

In English the word dozen is very often used by counting whereas in

Ukrainian the word дюжина is used very seldom. Of interest is also the
usage of the separate numeral score in English meaning twenty pieces
(двадцять штук). It does not have the plural form similar to
words hundred, thousand, e.g.: three score “шістдесят”, four score
“вісімдесят”, five score “сто”.

Ordinal numerals are formed from the cardinal ones by adding the suffix
-th in English, and in Ukrainian – the adjectival endings –
-ий, -а, -е.

The first four ordinal numerals are created in the contrasted languages not
according to general rules: the Ukrainian один – перший from the old
base “пьрв” (with the old meaning “передній”), the
English one – first from fyrest (the form of the superlative degree of the old
English fore meaning “the front”/перед). The
numerals другий (compare два) and the second (compare two) are also
formed from different stems, the latter is borrowed from the French
language. The numerals третій, четвертий and English third also have
the changed base in comparison with the corresponding cardinal
numerals три, чотири, three [5; 55–56].
The main allomorphic feature of Ukrainian numerals is that, unlike those in English, they have
grammatical categories of number, case and partly gender. All Ukrainian numerals have the category of
case, cf. п’ять – п’яти – п’яти – п’ять – п’ятьма – (на) п’яти; семеро – сімох – сімом – сімох – сімома –
(на) сімох; дві треті – двох третіх – двом третім – дві третіх – двома третіми – (на) двох третіх;
перший – першого – першому – першого – першим – (на) першому. The cardinal numerals один and
два have gender and number distinctions, cf. один, одна, одне/одно, одні; два, дві. Ordinal numerals
also have number and gender distinctions, cf. перший – перша – перше – перші; перша – першої –
першій – першу – першою – (на) першій; перше – першого – першому – перше – першим – (на)
першому; перші – перших – першим – перших – першими – (на) перших.

The English numeral as a part of speech is characterized by the following

features:

1) its lexico-grammatical meaning of “number”;

2) such typical stem-building suffixes as -teen, -ty;

3) the category of numerical qualification represented in opposemes

like seven – seventh;

4) its unilateral combinability with nouns (three children, the third child);

5) its syntactic function as an attribute, less frequently as some other part of

the sentence.

The lexico-grammatical meaning of “number” is not to be confused with the

grammatical meaning of “number”:

a) The former is the generalization of a multitude of lexical meanings of

individual numerals (five, ten, fifty seven, etc.). The latter is the
generalization of only two grammatical meanings: “singular” and “plural”.

b) The plural number, as in boys, shows indefinite plurality, whereas the

meanings of numerals, as in twenty, forty are definite plurality.

Numerals are usually divided into two groups, as it has been mentioned
above, – cardinal numerals (one, five, twenty) and ordinal numerals (first,
fifth, twentieth). The former denote some numerical quantity, the latter –
some numerical order.

The difference between these two groups is sometimes exaggerated to such

an extent that they are treated as belonging to different parts of speech. For
instance, A.I. Smirnitsky is of the opinion that only cardinal numerals form a
separate part of speech, whereas cardinal numerals are adjectives [24; 92–
93].

In the opinion of B. Khaimovich and B. Rogovskaya, the pair ten –

tenth forms an opposeme of the grammatical category of numerical
qualification [24; 92–93].

The lexical meaning of the two words expressed by the lexical

morpheme ten- is the same. They are opposed only grammatically by the
opposition of the zero morpheme in ten and the -th morpheme in tenth. The
opposition is as regular as that of the zero morpheme of the singular and
the -(e)s morpheme of the plural. The meaning of the zero morpheme is that
of “numerical quantity”, and the meaning of the -th morpheme is that of
“numerical order”.

In the opposemes one – first, two – second, three – third the meaning of

numerical qualification is expressed by means of suppletivity and sound
interchange.

The words half, quarter, zero, nought, score, etc. which have no ordinal
opposites, but possess plural opposites are nouns, not numerals. The same
in Ukrainian: words like одиниця, десяток, дюжина, сотня, пара are the
numeral nouns (числові іменники).

English and Ukrainian numerals are similar as to their lexico-grammatical

meanings, ways of stem-building, combinability and syntactic functions, but
they differ greatly regarding their grammatical categories.

1) Unlike their English counterparts, Ukrainian numerals possess the

categories of gender (третій – третя – третє), case (три – трьох –
трьом), and number (перший – перші).

2) There is a great difference between ordinal and cardinal numerals in

Ukrainian as far as their categories are concerned. Ordinal numerals
resemble adjectives not only in having the categories of number, gender and
case, but in the forms of the grammatical morphemes as well.
Compare: третій – мужній, третього – мужнього, etc. Cardinal
numerals do not possess the categories of number and gender (with the
exception of один, два). Therefore, the numeral in English is the indeclinable
part of speech, whereas in Ukrainian it is declined according to the same six
cases as nouns.

In both languages numerals expressing the number as the characteristic

feature of some object do not have the category of number themselves. In
Ukrainian only the numeral один somehow retains the correlation of singular
and plural forms, though in reality its plural form is reconsidered
(переосмислений). Thus in combination with nouns, which do not have the
singular number, it really renders the singleness of the object (одиничність
предмета) (compare: одні сани, одні окуляри), but in other cases it
acquires the meaning of pronoun (compare: одні хлопці мені говорили).

The category of gender is altogether absent in English numerals. In

Ukrainian the majority of numerals do not have it either (from 3 to 999). The
gender characteristics are differentiated only in numerals один (одна, одно),
два (дві), обидва (обидві), півтора (півтори). Besides the
numeral один the rest of these numerals have the common form for the
masculine and the neuter gender. The gender forms in all the numerals are
expressed only in the nominative and accusative cases. For the rest of cases
all three genders coincide in one form (e.g.: двох чоловіків, жінок, вікон).

The declension of Ukrainian numerals is not a united consistent

(послідовний) system, it contains the samples of different declensions. The
numeral один is declined as a demonstrative pronoun той, та, те. The
rest of numerals are declined very differently. Numerals from 5 to 90 (except
40) have in the genitive, the dative and the local cases one common form
with the flexion -и. Also they have the common form for the nominative and
accusative cases, and only in the instrumental case they have the separate
form with the flexion -ма (шістьма). Numerals 40, 90, 100 have the
common form for the whole rest of indirect cases (сорока').

Such a unification of indirect cases shows that the system of declensions in

Ukrainian is being ruined. Morphological forms of numerals transfer their
semantic load onto the syntactic forms.

The collective numerals двоє, троє and others have only the nominative

case, in other cases the forms of usual cardinal numerals are used instead of
them (двох, двом, двома). The collective numerals обидва, обидві,
обоє have the forms of the numeral оба in indirect cases, which was widely
used in older times.

The numerals півтора, півтора, півтораста are not declined altogether.

In both languages the numeral can be used independently without the

modified noun. In such cases they are somehow substantivized, performing
different syntactic functions, typical for nouns. In Ukrainian the collective
nouns of the type двоє, троє, четверо and others and their diminutive
forms двійко, трійко are very often used without nouns.

The peculiarity of the English language is the often use of cardinal numerals
in the role of ordinal ones. It happens usually by denoting the year, the
chapter of the book, the page, the number and so on, e.g.: page five (п’ята
сторінка), number six (шостий номер), lesson two (другий урок), in the
year nineteen seventeen (у 1917 році). In Ukrainian such a usage is only
possible with the word номер (аудиторія номер десять). In other cases
the ordinal numerals are always used.

The ordinal numerals are most often used in the function of attribute in both
languages: the first floor, другий поверх. The forms of ordinal numerals,
similar to forms of adjectives, are wholly syntactic ones: they are revealed
only as a consequence of existing of certain categories by the corresponding
nouns with which these ordinal numerals are agreed (Форми порядкових
числівників, як і форми прикметників, цілком синтаксичні: вони
виявляються виключно як наслідок існування певних категорій у
відповідних іменниках, з якими ці порядкові числівники узгоджуються) [5;
58–59].

The combinability of English and Ukrainian numerals is rather limited. As a

rule, they form combinations with nouns. Numerals usually precede the
nouns they modify, e.g.: three boys – три хлопці, first day – перший день.
Numerals, as a rule, are not modified by other words. This negative
combinability is also a characteristic feature of the part of speech.