Re: more on adjectives

Brad Coon wrote:
>Combining all of these allows only one unmarked order for me,
>He is a stupid, old, black and white hunting dog.
In the workbook that accompanied H.A.Gleason's old "Intro. to Linguistics"
(50s-60s) there was a problem of just this sort, with "house" as the main
noun and an even longer string of adjectives.  Unfortunately I don't recall
the answer, if there was a definite one.....except that, in that case,
color, material and style tended to cluster most closely (in that order)
with the noun: .... white, brick, Victorian house.  In this "dog" case, I
can move things around by adding qualifiers-- black and white, rather old
and stupid, hunting dog.... but that involves breaking up the intonation
pattern, so that the moved adjectives seem to be almost in apposition.
Frankly I don't know what's going on.

Can't recall this matter ever being covered in e.g. Spanish class (nor,
offhand, can I recall long strings of adjectives in literary works) or
Indonesian, where there would probably  be a tendency to stick excess adjs.
into a relative clause.

>Secondly, have any of you given any thought to ordering adjectives in
>your languages?
Kash, quite arbitrarily, allows only two adjs. (plus qualifiers, and perhaps
a demonstrative) after a noun (plus quantifiers in front).  The excess would
have to go in a conjoined sentence or relative clause.  In the exs. I've
attempted, this allows for fairly free ordering, which seems to depend on
what you want to emphasize....if that's what's going on.  I suspect some
interference from my native language.

lopa hondo (i) marok 'a stupid (and) old _lopa_' (you could switch the
adjs.)
lopa hondo niya i marok 'a very stupid and old lopa'
lopa hondo niya i marok ya 'that very stupid etc.'
nim~yuno lopa ....... '5~all the ....lopas'
yuno nim lopa.... 'all 5....lopas'
lopa hondo (i) marok ya  RE~I yapeka 'that stupid old lopa WHO~AND (he is)
lame'
lopa peka (i) marok ya RE~I yahondo
etc. etc.
More research is needed.