Numeral: uma classe à parte?

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of the numeral, to which NGB reserved na autonomous class, analysing basically two questions: 1) What are the purely grammatical properties of the numeral? And 2) which elements should be understood as numerals? In order to do it, this article starts from the classification of the numeral, according to the traditional grammars and according to the linguistics that, although does not consider the numeral as an autonomous class, does not come to a consense about the class to which the numeral belongs. After that, with base on the arguments of the linguists, the morphological, syntactical and semantical properties of the numeral are analysed. Such properties may lead to a criterious and coherent classification of the numerais.