The category of representation of the numeral

The article considers the categorical nature of the numeral as a part of speech from the standpoint of the theory of representation. Language representation enables the author to identify and describe primary and secondary syntactic functions exemplified by cognitive communicative and discursive forms. They demonstrate different degrees of the quantitative attribute manifestation in terms of its completeness and intensity in various forms of the numeral. Major means of its representation have been revealed and characterized: in the main syntactical position - a constituent of numerical (cardinal) phrase ( tri stola ); as well as in the secondary syntactic positions - adjectival numeral ( tretiy ), or ordinal; adverbial numeral ( trizhdy ), and substantivized numeral ( troika ). In them, the quantitative attribute is diversely expanded due to the interaction of the numeral with those parts of speech for which its non-basic syntactic positions are thought to be the main ones. The scale of quantity representation shows a decrease in completeness and intensity degree: from the prototypical trait in cardinal numerals to the minimal extent in substantivized forms. The syntactic nature of the category of representation makes it possible to present sufficiently and diversely the part-of-speech semantics of the numeral.