Porednie

Porednie is a term used in some linguistic references to designate the category of ordinal numerals or ordinal adjectives in Slavic-language grammars. The label is not standardized in English, and its exact usage varies by language; in English-language grammars the concept is usually described simply as ordinal numbers or ordinal adjectives.

Etymology and scope: The form derives from Slavic roots relating to order and sequence. In Russian the corresponding term is poryadkovye chisla (ordinal numbers); in Polish the equivalent is liczby porzadkowe; in Croatian and Serbian the phrases poredni brojevi or poredne riječi are used. These forms describe words that encode position within a sequence rather than quantity.

Function and morphology: Porednie function to express order (first, second, third, etc.). They typically agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case in highly inflected languages. Formation rules differ by language: some build ordinals from cardinal stems with derivational suffixes, while others use separate lexical forms or periphrastic constructions.

Relation to other categories: Ordinal forms are contrasted with cardinal numbers, which express amount (one, two, three). In many languages cardinals and ordinals are distinct grammatical classes, though in some contexts the same form can serve both functions or rely on context for disambiguation.

See also: ordinal numbers, cardinal numbers, grammatical gender, agreement, Slavic linguistics.