Re: OT: libraries (was Re: dialectal diversity in English)

Quoting John Cowan <cowan@...>:

> Adam Walker scripsit:
>
> > Are other languages as silly about the ordering of
> > adjectives as English?
>
> Well, at least the distinction between "public Swedish libraries" and
> "Swedish public libraries" carries semantic information.  JRRT, when
> young,
> wrote a story about a "green great dragon": his mother pointed out
> that
> it had to be "great green dragon", though no reason for this is known.
> In general, changing the ordering of adjectives either produces a soft
> error (like "green great dragon", which is intelligible but
> ungrammatical),
> or else changes the meaning.
Roleplayers may feel that a "green great dragon" is a dragon which is green
and great, whereas a "great green dragon" is a large specimen of the sub-type
of dragon known as "green dragon" ...

                                                           Andreas