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I largely disagree with the universality attributed to this 'rule'. It's just that different 'groupings' are usually less useful. E.g. it is far less likely th
by tpoacher 6y ago
I largely disagree with the universality attributed to this 'rule'. It's just that different 'groupings' are usually less useful.
E.g. it is far less likely that you'd want to specify that the "green knife" entity is to be used for whittling. It is far more likely that you'd want to specify that the "whittling knife" is green.
Similarly you're unlikely to group 'lovely knife' as the most low-level entity to which you'd add higher leverl characterisations.
Some of the other ones though are reasonably interchangeable, as long as it is understood that the focus is slightly different each time.
E.g. a priceless old knife, and old priceless knife mean slightly different things, and you'd choose the order depending on whether you wanted to emphasize that the old knife happens to be priceless, as opposed to that the priceless knife happens to be old.
- SamBam 6y agoExactly. I tend to think of it as relating to how tightly the adjective is bound to the word. The first adjective before the noun modifies the noun the most. The adjective before modifies that tuple. The adjective before that modifies that group, etc. "Hand me the green knife." / "Which one? There are two: one metal and one plastic." / "The metal green knife." "Hand me the metal knife." / "Which one? There are two: one green and one blue." / "The green metal knife."
- d1sxeyes 6y agoFor me "the metal green knife" just sounds weird. I'd just say "the metal one". I can't think of an example in which "the metal green knife" sounds natural.
- selimthegrim 6y agoIf you are describing quality of the color “metallic green knife” - like the car in My Cousin Vinny for example
- selimthegrim 6y agoMetallic mint green to be pedantic
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- soupson 6y agoIf there were a table of several objects, many of which were green knives, only one of which were made of metal. You are standing out of arm's reach and need someone close to the table to hand you precisely the green knife that will get the job done: the metal green knife.
- nilram 6y ago> far less likely that you'd want to specify that the "green knife" entity is to be used for whittling. It is far more likely that you'd want to specify that the "whittling knife" is green. I don't know what a whittling knife looks like, so I would be far more likely to specify that the green knife is used for whittling.
- nine_k 6y agoTake this red big fresh apple. Please note how red, fresh, and big are orthogonal, but you still can notice that something is out of order with the previous phrase.
- tpoacher 6y agoWell, yes, but again it's about logical grouping. They're orthogonal in a narrow sense, as adjectival descriptions, but there is a logical hierarchical grouping that distinguishes between red and green apples as entities. In what everyday scenario would you need to characterise an apple in the "fresh apples" group as being specifically 'red'? It would be far more common to characterise an apple of the "red apple" variety as specifically being fresh.