Adjective ordering

Nearly all languages allow attributive adjectives to modify nouns; in fact, in many languages this is their only or primary function (Dixon 2004a). In some languages, attributive modification is limited to a single adjective phrase; additional adjectives must be coordinated, introduced by apposition, or introduced in relative clauses.¹ In other languages, such as English, multiple adjectives are possible, and in such languages there are very clear crosslinguistic tendencies in the ordering of attributive adjectives. By and large, the order of prenominal adjectives tends to be similar cross-linguistically, for example size before color. Languages with postnominal adjectives split, with some showing the same order as English (e.g. Irish: Sproat and Shih 1991) and other languages showing the mirror image (e.g. Hebrew: Shlonsky 2004, contra Sproat and Shih 1991). In many cases, there is a preferred ordering and a marked ordering, or two different interpretations for two different orders.²

1 For example: on Thai, Nung, and Indonesian: Simpson (2005: 834, n. 1), contra Sproat and Shih (1991); on Wolof, McLaughlin (2004: 254).

2 See e.g. Demonte (this volume). Many languages have a kind of augment on each adjective, and it seems that this may yield relatively free ordering: cf. the discussion of Greek (Alexiadou and Wilder 1998), Hawrami (Holmberg and Odden 2005), Chinese (Sproat and Shih 1991; Paul 2005), and other languages. Compare Sproat and Shih’s (1991) notion of “direct” versus “indirect” modification.