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Writing Rules Unspoken

Elixir

Elixir

Made in America
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English is complicated
I don’t recall (/mtg) having been taught this “rule” but it does seem to apply as well as any I know.
What else have I missed?
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I've heard of this but really it's extremely loose. Only the order of the very last few matters, which literally is a language rule.
 
I first heard of this only recently. (At my age, a decade or so seems "recent.") It surprises me how well it works: If you put the adjectives in the wrong order, the phrase is likely to sound non-idiomatic.

Different sources give slightly different categories. Combining lists one can update Elixir's list of 9 categories to 11:
  1. Determiner/Quantity
  2. Opinion
  3. Size
  4. Physical Quality
  5. Age
  6. Shape
  7. Color
  8. Origin
  9. Material
  10. Type
  11. Purpose
  12. (Noun)

The rules are not absolute of course, and it's not always clear what category an adjective is in. But I am intrigued by how closely idiomatic English usually DOES adhere. (Have there been studies of adjective order in other languages?)

A fun little project is to construct phrases with long strings of adjectives and see how well the ordering rule applies. Any takers? I've attached two noun phrases with 11 adjectives each, one from each category. (The excessive number of adjectives will make them seem non-idiomatic regardless of order. Try saying them with some of the adjectives omitted. I didn't know what material to apply to girl, but went with 'silky-skinned.' I could have substituted a plastic sex robot for the girl but didn't want to seem perverted!)

An exquisite miniature sturdy antique triangular ebony-colored French ceramic flat heating iron

A serviceable tall gorgeous young buxom blond Swedish silky-skinned freelance working girl
 
Swammerdami said:
I first heard of this only recently. (At my age, a decade or so seems "recent.") It surprises me how well it works: If you put the adjectives in the wrong order, the phrase is likely to sound non-idiomatic.

Different sources give slightly different categories. Combining lists one can update Elixir's list of 9 categories to 11:
  1. Determiner/Quantity
  2. Opinion
  3. Size
  4. Physical Quality
  5. Age
  6. Shape
  7. Color
  8. Origin
  9. Material
  10. Type
  11. Purpose
  12. (Noun)

The rules are not absolute of course, and it's not always clear what category an adjective is in. But I am intrigued by how closely idiomatic English usually DOES adhere. (Have there been studies of adjective order in other languages?)

A fun little project is to construct phrases with long strings of adjectives and see how well the ordering rule applies. Any takers? I've attached two noun phrases with 11 adjectives each, one from each category. (The excessive number of adjectives will make them seem non-idiomatic regardless of order. Try saying them with some of the adjectives omitted. I didn't know what material to apply to girl, but went with 'silky-skinned.' I could have substituted a plastic sex robot for the girl but didn't want to seem perverted!)

An exquisite miniature sturdy antique triangular ebony-colored French ceramic flat heating iron

A serviceable tall gorgeous young buxom blond Swedish silky-skinned freelance working girl
Click to expand...
In French, the situation is further complicated by the flexible position of the adjective, with adjectives relating to the proverbial "beauty, age, goodness, size", then any other adjectives following the noun and always joined by a conjunction "mince et gris". Some adjectives are flexible and have slightly different connotations depending on sentence position; so, the "ancien régime" is the former political order which has been displaced by a new one, whereas a "régime ancien" merely implies an old political system, not necessarily one that has been replaced. I'd have to stop and think about whether there is a rule about the order of trailing adjectives like the one in the OP. If there is, I've probably been violating it for many long embarassing years.
 
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