Re: word order of adjectives

From "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language", by David
Crystal, P. 223:
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ADJECTIVE ZONES:

Examples such as the following suggest that there are four main 'zones'
within the premodifying section of a noun phrase, here labelled I, II,
III, and IV.

I've got the same (I) big (II) red (III) garden (IV) chairs as you.

IV  Words which are usually nouns, or closely related to nouns, are
placed next to the head. They include nationality adjectives (American,
Gothic), noun-like adjectives which mean 'involving' or 'relating to
(medical, social), and straightforward nouns (tourism brochure,
Lancashire factory).   Thus we say:

an old Lancashire factory  NOT  *a Lancashire old factory
a bright medical student  NOT  *a medical bright student

IV  Participles and colour adjectives are placed immediately in front
of any in zone IV: missing, deserted, retired, stolen, red, green.
Thus we say:

an old red suit  NOT  *a red old suit
the red tourism brochures  NOT  *the tourism red brochures

I  Adjectives with an absolute or intensifying meaning come first in
the sequence, immediately after the determiner and its satellites:
same, certain, entire, sheer, definite, perfect, superb.  Thus we say:

the entire American army  NOT  *the American entire army
the perfect red suit  NOT  *the red perfect suit

II  All other adjectives (the vast majority in the language) occur in
this zone: big, slow, angry, helpful, ....  Thus we say:

a superb old house  NOT  *an old superb house  (with a zone I item)
an old stolen car  NOT  *a stolen old car  (with a zone III item)
an old social disease  NOT  *a social old disease   (with a zone IV
item)

There are also signs of 'zones within zones'.  For example, we tend to
say "a beautiful new dress" not "a new beautiful dress", suggesting
that evaluative adjectives in zone II precede other kinds of adjectives
there.  We also tend to say "a recognizable zig-zag pattern" not "a
zig-zag recognizable pattern", suggesting that more abstract adjectives
precede more concrete ones.  But, as the word 'tend' suggests, the
rules are not hard and fast.
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Hope this helps answer you question.  Not sure how much is
English-specific, how much not.

Estel

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