SaukPuhpet t1_j6lbw6w wrote on January 31, 2023 at 3:18 AM

In English adjectives follow the order of:

Opinion

Size

Age

Shape

Color

Place of origin

Material

Purpose

"The big(size) brown(color) brick(material) wall"

To expand this and use all of them you have:

"The ugly big old crooked brown french brick dividing wall"

Changing the order of theses adjectives makes it feel "wrong" because after years of hearing adjectives in this order you have internalized it, even if you are not consciously aware of the order.

~~This rule of grammar is called Ablaut Reduplication.~~

EDIT: I goofed it is not called this. It may not have a name.

Durris t1_j6lsw8t wrote on January 31, 2023 at 5:52 AM

Ablaut reduplication is the pattern of vowels in song song phrases or sounds like tic-tac-toe. You are describing something else, though I don't know the name, or if it even has one, for that rule.

highwaistedpants4evr t1_j6ltmwu wrote on January 31, 2023 at 6:00 AM

Another great example: “Hey, I'm gonna give you to the count of ten, to get your ugly, yella, no-good keister off my property, before I pump your guts full of lead!”

malenkylizards t1_j6lvz0k wrote on January 31, 2023 at 6:26 AM

But...that example breaks the alleged rule. Ugly and no good are both opinions, yella is a color. If the rule really worked without exception, this would sound wrong and strange to us, but "ugly, no-good, yella keister" would sound normal. I'd say the opposite is true, the one following the rules sounds a tiny bit worse but is also pretty much fine.

redhedinsanity t1_j6lyo7q wrote on January 31, 2023 at 6:59 AM

"yella" (yellow) is an old-time slang word for "cowardly" (short for "yellow-bellied"), in this case it's not actually describing the color, so it does fit since it's 3 opinions about the person's character.

Teupfleup t1_j6pcu71 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 11:10 PM

Useful addition but not a rule or answer to the actual question. It's basically a systematic reiteration of the question. The rules that produce this pattern are AFAIK still to a large extend unknown.

Except for the latter two, that is: "Material" and "Purpose". These are actually quite easy to explain. What is called "purpose" here refers to simply compound heads that would form 1 word in other Germanic languages spelling, so obviously it comes closest to the noun. And "material" is a genitive that doesn't tolerate adjectives between it and its noun. "The wooden big table" is ungrammatical in a way pretty similar to "The table I saw of wood" is.