Linguistic Means of Evaluation of Quantity in Texts Containing Numerical Lexemes

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of linguistic means of explicating evaluation in utterances containing numerals. The evaluation of certain amounts and numbers can be encountered at all levels of linguistic expression. It is shown that both quantitative and axiological evaluation of a certain number or amount, expressed by a numeral, can be verbalized at the surface level of the semantic structure of the utterance with either stylistically colored or neutral lexemes that belong to different parts of speech. Stylistically colored lexemes often combine evaluation semes (such as “a lot” and “bad”). The evaluation of a certain number expressed by a numeral with the primary meaning can be detected as a hidden presupposition and / or communicative meaning of a statement including a numerical lexeme. Pragmatic factors that determine the evaluation are considered. It is noted that in speech, explicit and implicit ways of expressing evaluation can be combined, which leads to an “amplification” of the evaluation and is manifested in the simultaneous use of linguistic units of different levels.