ORDERING OF MULTIPLE ADJECTIVES
Descriptors are not necessarily ordered in a relation of dependency, as classifiers are. Nevertheless, their order of occurrence is not totally free, and various suggestions have been offered of preferred orderings. Here is one:
• attributes of size, age, shape and color usually occur in that order: a large, rectangular, black box.
• de-verbal adjectives (i.e. derived from verbs) before denominal ones (derived from nouns; as in: an attractive, ambitious woman.
• short adjectives before long ones, as in: a small, pretty, well-kept garden.
• well-known words before less common ones: a strange, antediluvian monster.
• the most forceful or ‘dynamic’ adjective tends to be placed at the end: a sudden, loud, ear-splitting crash; such sequences are also felt to be more satisfying rhythmically, compared with an ear-splitting, loud, sudden crash.
