OT: Adjective order (WAS: OT: THEORY Fusion Grammar)
From: | Sai Emrys <sai@...> |
Date: | Wednesday, July 19, 2006, 8:46 |
> Sentence: The big ugly dog that Mary brought home
> yesterday has been barking all night.
Does anyone have a list of how exactly the 'natural'-sounding
adjective order goes in English (or other languages)?
E.g. if you made a really long string of adjectives:
The big mean ugly yellow mangy balloon-shaped ....
If you swap some of them around it sounds very off.
Similarly, for listing a small number of things, it seems that one
starts with the alphabetically *last*, then cycles through from A->Z.
Don't have a good example offhand 'cause it's 1:44am :-P
Hopefully y'all know what I'm talking about anyway.
- Sai
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