Re: more on adjectives

<<So a couple of questions, do other native speakers of English also
find this THE acceptable order or do other orders feel equally valid?>>

Yes, other orders are valid. Why not an old, stupid, white, black hunting dog? The
problem with the specific adjectives you chose is that there's a fixed
expression "stupid old", or "stupid ol'", so it will inevitably sound like they
go together, and there's also a fixed expression "black-and-white", so it will
feel like black should always come before white. Can you come up with some
other adjectives?

<<Secondly, have any of you given any thought to ordering adjectives in
your languages?>>

Not a jot. The general seems to follow a sort of intrinsic logic that probably is
native to English speakers, such that if you say "an old blue dog", you think
of a type of dog which is blue that also happens to be old. However, if you
were to say a "blue old dog", you'd think of "old dog" as a thing, and that
you've got a blue one of those things. It's almost as if the adjective closest
to the noun signifies a type. So, you get a "radical young man", since "young
man" is a thing, but not really a "young radical man", since "young man" is
more of a type than a "radical man". I feel like I'm lacking in technical
terminology for what I'm trying to explain... Do you see where I'm going?

-David

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