Шедугова Марина. Comparison of numbers in French, Russian and Hebrew

Comparison of numbers in French, Russian and Hebrew

As it is already known, the linguistic picture of the world is very rich. It is very difficult to determine exactly how many languages are in the world as there is no precise border between languages and dialects.

There are different classifications of languages and types of their studying. One of them is the comparative language typology. This method is widely spread and actual as it allows to define links between unrelated languages and confirm the existence of the deep language structures.

The purpose of the article is to compare the main features of grammar categories in French, Russian and Hebrew, in particular, the category of numbers of nouns.

This category is expressed in all mentioned languages, but if in French and Russian this opposition is binomial, in Hebrew it is trinomial: singular and plural are added by dual number.

The category of number is semantic and significant only for countable nouns and it is insignificant for uncountable.

The main methods of plural formation in compared languages are the following:

The method of grammar expressing	Russian	Hebrew	French
The method of grammar expressing	Russian	Hebrew			written	Oral
Inflection	Книга-книги (book-books)	More-morim (teacher-teachers) Hatula-hatulot (cat-cats)	Cheval-chevaux (horse-horses)	[??val-??vo]
Agglutination	_____	Hamud-hamudim (handsome man-handsome men)	Table-tables, cerf-cerfs (deer-deers)	[s?rf-s?r]
Immutability (analytical method)	Эти кенгуру (these kangaroos)	_________	Ces pays (these places)	[se-tabl]
Supplantation	Человек-люди (person-people)	Isha-nashim (woman-women)	?il-yeux (eye-eyes)	[?j-j?]

In French plural is generally formed by adding the ending -s. However, the recognized fact is that there are oral and written variants of French grammar. That's why during the communication plural nouns have the tendency to be expressed in an analytical way.

In Russian the variety of plural forms is great. But the main form which is used is the ending -i.

In Hebrew plural is formed by adding the ending -im to the plural of masculine nouns; -ot to the plural of feminine nouns. There are also some masculine forms which are made by adding -ot. E.g. shulhan - shulhanot (table-tables).

Dual number is possessed only by uncountable masculine nouns. This subcategory is expressed by the ending -aim. E.g. iom (day) - iomaim (two days) - iomim (days). It is interesting to mention that parts of body are expressed by the dual number in all cases even if there are more than two. E.g. Le hatul esh arba reglaim (A cat has four legs).

Just the dual number form the cases of pluralia tantum. E.g. scissors - misparaim, glasses - mishkafaim etc.

The using of pluralia tantum in all three languages is mainly equal. E.g. tenebres, потемки, dimdumim (twilight). But there are some cases of divergence: noces, свадьба, hatuna (wedding); porte, ворота, shaar (gates).

In the function of neutralization all three languages use unmarked form of singular nouns.

The statements above can let us draw the following conclusions:

-- Compared languages are characterized by approximately equal number of grammar categories. But the internal segmentation of categories can be different.

-- In contrast to Hebrew and Russian, in French the expression of grammatical categories has the analytical tendency.

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Comparison of numbers in French, Russian and Hebrew