Re: word order of adjectives

Quoting Tommie L Powell <tommiepowell@...>:

> I notice that, in every language I'm familiar with (even if its grammar
> doesn't ever require a sentence's words to follow any word-order rules),
> any group of adjectives that modify a particular noun are ordinarily
> arranged in a particular order.  For example, in English, we may speak of
> a BIG OLD RED CAR (or house or whatever), but people do a double-take if
> we say OLD BIG RED CAR or BIG RED OLD CAR or OLD RED BIG CAR or RED OLD
> BIG CAR or RED BIG OLD CAR (or house or whatever).  So it seems that size
> beats age and color, and that age beats color, somewhere in the brains of
> English speakers.
>
> This also holds where only two adjectives are involved.  It's normally a
> BIG OLD CAR (not an OLD BIG CAR), or an OLD RED CAR (not a RED OLD CAR),
> or a BIG RED CAR (not a RED BIG CAR).
>
> Has anybody here considered this matter?  If so, what are your thoughts?
> Thanks.
This have been brought up at least once earlier in the list - an archive hunt
might prove interesting.

I've not done any serious thinking on these matters, altho I did go to the
trouble of thinking up a kind of hierarchy to decide in what order Tairezazh
adjectives should go. From my website:

When mutliple adjectives modify a single noun, the more inherent a quality is
thought to be to the noun the closer the corresponding adjective tends to be
placed to the noun. What qualities are more inherent than others is of course
somewhat arbitrary - a rough hierarchy is [physical properties]>[shape]>
[visual/sensory characteristica]>[other characteristica]>
[nationality/provinence]. Eg _dazer zail dzhdad dair tir tairezazh lit_ "(a)
man young tall beautiful proud Tairezan"="a tall beautiful proud Tairezan
young man".

(Note that I'm not a native speaker of English, and I don't know if the
ENGLISH order in that example is correct!)

                                                  Andreas