Editing Numeral (linguistics) (section)

==Identifying numerals==
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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. Such words are called [[quantifier (linguistics)|quantifier]]s. Examples are words such as ''every'', ''most'', ''least'', ''some'', etc. Numerals are distinguished from other quantifiers by the fact that they designate a specific number.<ref name=GloL/> Examples are words such as ''five, ten, fifty, one hundred, etc.'' They may or may not be treated as a distinct part of speech; this may vary, not only with the language, but with the choice of word. For example, "dozen" serves the function of a [[noun]], "first" serves the function of an [[adjective]], and "twice" serves the function of an [[adverb]]. In [[Old Church Slavonic]], the cardinal numbers 5 to 10 were feminine nouns; when quantifying a noun, that noun was [[Declension|declined]] in the genitive plural like other nouns that followed a noun of quantity (one would say the equivalent of "five '''of''' people"). In English grammar, the classification "''numeral''" (viewed as a [[part of speech]]) is reserved for those words which have distinct grammatical behavior: when a numeral modifies a noun, it may replace the [[article (grammar)|article]]: '''''the/some''' dogs played in the park'' → '''''twelve''' dogs played in the park''. (*'''''dozen''' dogs played in the park'' is not grammatical, so "dozen" is not a numeral in this sense.) English numerals indicate [[cardinal number (linguistics)|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.

Numerals may be simple, such as 'eleven', or compound, such as 'twenty-three'.

In linguistics, however, numerals are classified according to purpose: examples are [[ordinal number (linguistics)|ordinal number]]s (''first'', ''second'', ''third'', etc.; from 'third' up, these are also used for fractions), [[Adverbial number|multiplicative (adverbial) numbers]] (''once'', ''twice'', and ''thrice''), [[multiplier (linguistics)|multipliers]] (''single'', ''double'', and ''triple''), and [[distributive number]]s (''singly'', ''doubly'', and ''triply''). [[Georgian language|Georgian]],<ref>{{cite web| url = http://wals.info/feature/description/| title = Walsinfo.com}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Latin, and Romanian (see [[Romanian numbers#Distributive numbers|Romanian distributive numbers]]) have regular [[distributive number]]s, such as Latin {{lang|la|singuli}} "one-by-one", {{lang|la|bini}} "in pairs, two-by-two", {{lang|la|terni}} "three each", etc. In languages other than English, there may be other kinds of number words. For example, in Slavic languages there are [[English numerals#Collective numbers|collective numbers]] (monad, pair/dyad, triad) which describe sets, such as ''pair'' or ''dozen'' in English (see [[Russian numerals]], [[Polish numerals]]).

Some languages have a very limited set of numerals, and in some cases they arguably do not have any numerals at all, but instead use more generic quantifiers, such as 'pair' or 'many'. However, by now most such languages have borrowed the numeral system or part of the numeral system of a national or colonial language, though in a few cases (such as [[Guarani language|Guarani]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Numbers in Guaraní (Papapy Avañe'ême)|url=https://omniglot.com/language/numbers/guarani.htm|access-date=2021-06-11|website=omniglot.com|archive-date=2021-06-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611191500/https://omniglot.com/language/numbers/guarani.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>), a numeral system has been invented internally rather than borrowed. Other languages had an indigenous system but borrowed a second set of numerals anyway. An example is [[Japanese numerals|Japanese]], which uses either native or Chinese-derived numerals depending on what is being counted.

In many languages, such as [[Chinese numerals|Chinese]], numerals require the use of [[numeral classifier]]s. Many [[sign language]]s, such as [[American Sign Language|ASL]], [[Incorporation (linguistics)|incorporate]] numerals.