Re: more on adjectives

Lars wrote:

>  > From: Tristan Alexander McLeay
>
>>  Where're TEFL websites? What's TEFL?
>
>Teaching English as a Foreign Language, most likely. Try google to
>find the websites.
I've blotted most of my TEFL experience out of my mind, but it seems
to me that the "Side by Side" series, in either Book 2 or 3 had a
very simple formula for it (hmm..."a big red Chinese silk blouse", so
sth. along the lines of size-age-color-nationality-material..., but
there are more). Up to having to teach that point, I had never even
thought about it.  Back in high school French and Spanish we were
told that if we simply reversed the order of the English adjectives
(minus that handful of adjectives that get fronted in French and
Spanish), we'd be right most of the time (a little pink blouse -- una
blusa rosa pequeña) (though that doesn't work, I think, for my above
example. une grande blouse rouge de soie chinoise. here it's a little
ambiguous whether it's the blouse or the silk that's Chinese, but
that's also true of the English [to a lesser extent; I'd parse it
that it was the blouse that was Chinese]. if "silk" weren't in the
mix [and in English we could debate whether "silk" here is an adj. or
n.], I'd probably change "chinoise" to "de Chine" to break it up a
bit). I've adopted that same rule of thumb for Géarthnuns as
adjectives follow the noun.

While it's clear that there is a grammatical mechanism in place here,
I don't think it makes for great style (there's nothing in the
formula that says we're obliged to use all of them at once). Beyond
"itsy-bitsy teny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini", "...purple people
eater" (don't remember all the modifiers on that one [four-armed?
five-eyed?] -- a little before my time) and other utterances used for
humorous effect, how often such long adj. strings occur? And would
you use them in writing or formal speaking?

Kou

Kou