Adjectives: What Planets and Noun Phrases Have in Common

The Planetary Accretion Metaphor of Adjectival Layering

Linguists have long studied the proper ordering of adjectives. There is a universal hierarchy of adjective ordering that encompasses all natural languages spoken by humans. There are also exceptions to the universal hierarchy in all languages. There appear to be several forces that apply order on adjectives. Sometimes these forces work together and sometimes they work in opposition to one another. This makes it difficult to enumerate any universal ordering rule.

One hypothesized factor includes the structure of the human brain itself. The human brain appears to prefer the presentation of information that is ordered in specific ways. This would help to explain why the phenomenon is highly consistent across unrelated natural languages spoken by humans. The human brain's organization imposes a preference.

Another factor that appears to be more than an hypothesis is that adjectival order is influenced by the relative importance of various nominal attributes. For example, when comparing wines, the origin of the wine is considered more essential to the nature of the wine than an opinion about the quality of the wine. One says "a fine Sardinian wine" and not "a Sardinian fine wine". Whether a wine is fine or not is often a matter of taste or opinion. Its fineness is a subjective - not an objective quality of the wine. The fact that it is a Sardinian wine is not disputable. Whether it is a fine wine or not is up for dispute and might say more about whoever utters the phrase "fine Sardinian wine" than the wine itself. In a sense, this is a matter of epistemology - the study of knowledge and knowledge about things. The origin of something can be known. The quality of something can only be believed. If we think of the epistemological weight of an adjective upon its noun on a spectrum with belief at one end and knowledge at the other end, we can see something analogous to gravity exerting a force of attraction between the noun and its adjectives. This "gravity" plays a role in the ordering of adjectives in a way similar to how a planetary body accretes into a sphere with the heavier elements towards its center and the lighter elements towards the edge of its atmosphere - heavy metals in the center, lighter metals in the outer core, molten rock in its mantle, lighter rock in its crust, water above the crust, air above the water, etc. If we think of the noun as the center of a planet and the English prepositions to its left as layers outward (leftward) from the noun (center), the metaphor seems to work - almost. However, when we consider the fact that the Earth's actual structure is also filled with exceptions caused by forces other than gravity, the metaphor works even better.

Continuing with the gravity metaphor, adjectives conveying opinions are the least weighty and appear towards the left end of the adjectival sequence, much like the atmosphere of a planet is furthest from the planet's center. Opinions are epistemological lightweights in comparison to the heavier real facts based on knowledge. They float leftward in the adjectival chain towards its outer edge - where they belong. (A planet is still a planet without its atmosphere, but gas is never an atmosphere without its planetary body.)

Likewise, if we strip away the adjectives of opinion that weigh upon a noun, the meaning of a sentence is only changed slightly and sometimes not at all. On the other hand, if we strip away the adjectives that determine the essential nature of the thing referred to by a noun phrase, we significantly change the meaning of the sentence.

While none of the above will lead to hard-and-fast rules about the ordering of adjectives, it appears to be a good heuristic to apply when struggling to figure out the proper order. The above also makes the ordering of adjectives less arbitrary and easier to understand.

There are other forces, in addition to the structure of the human brain and epistemology, that appear to play a role in the ordering of adjectives. One of these factors is based on usage alone. When we become accustomed to placing one specific word directly next to another, we feel more comfortable with that ordering, even when it violates the influence of other factors upon the ordering. A catchy word chunk that spreads around a language community programs speakers to treat the word chuck like a single unit. We can think of this unit as akin to a molecule. Under the planetary metaphor above, a planet is not stratified by elements alone. It is stratified by molecules. Think of these word chunks as molecules.

Finally, another force is free will. An author or speaker might wish to emphasize one attribute over another or a poet might choose a sound pattern or rhythm over grammatical orthodoxy. There are times when rules are meant to be broken!

When learning how to order adjectives in any language, unless you are a linguist, do not expect a clear and certain list of rules to explain the ordering. Such lists do exist, but they are all subject to many exceptions. Accept that this is a complicated topic influenced by many factors that are both understood and not understood. In the end, it comes down to years of exposure to the language as it is used and the instincts that arise from it.