Adjective Order
Adjectives Know their Place
Where a noun is premodified by more the one adjective, the adjectives cannot be placed in any order you choose. Adjectives and other elements of a noun phrase are placed in a particular order according to the following schema1:
Notes
This schema includes the structure for an entire noun phrase. It includes determiners and numerals, not because they are considered adjectives, but because, like adjectives they limit the reference of the head noun in some way.The noun phrase must contain, at a minimum, a noun, and for our purposes since we are concerned about adjectives, at least one adjective, which could be a descriptor or a classifier. So we could have any of the following four (note that "power plants" is a compound noun):
But what we CANNOT do is swap the descriptor/category order:
In theory, we could have any number of descriptors or classifiers, but there are rarely more than two. Here is an example with three adjectives; two descriptors and a classifier:
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"A significant part of the undergraduate experience, after all, involves grappling with big questions about professional, personal and civic identity." (Cervelli 2023)The descriptors above could be placed in any order since they have similar characteristics (more about this below).
Here is another example:
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"Time was important enough to our ancestors that they went to the effort of building an extraordinary prehistoric monument, Stonehenge." (Prendergast 2023)The adjective "extraordinary" is a descriptor (in fact, an intensifying adjective), and "prehistoric" is a classifier (it restricts the span of time the monument belongs in, and it is not gradable). But what if we have more than one adjective in one of the categories?
Adjective Order: Descriptors
Consider the following example:Source
"Generative AI is the hot new technology behind chatbots and image generators." (Saenko 2023)We have two quintessential descriptors here, "hot" and "new". Why not new hot technology? In this case, "hot" is not a collocate of technology, but "new" is. So "hot" describes "new technology". But what about the following example?
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"You will also find descriptions in Inuit Greenlandic stories of a prolonged hibernation-like sleep during the long dark winter months." (Stenvinkel 2024)The adjectives "long" and "dark" are both good collocates of winter ("long winter", "dark winter") so we can't use collocation to decide which adjective comes first. We have to use some guidelines. Following (Quirk 1985), we can divide descriptors into three zones; precentral, central, and postcentral:
You can see from this schema that "long" occupies the central position and "dark" occupies the postcentral position. Hence: "long dark winter months". We can also give another explanation for "hot new technology". The adjective "hot" in this phrase is really an intensifying adjective and for this reason precedes the central adjective "new".
More Examples
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"It’s particularly worrying, then, that these petrochemical firms are seemingly so sure their enormous new investments will pay off." (Bauer and Nielsen 2021)Source
"Riding the iconic yellow school bus is a formative experience for millions of kids across the U.S. If more districts make the shift away from diesel, I believe it will become a greener and healthier trip and a step toward the zero-emissions future our nation’s children deserve." (Marpillero-Colomina 2022)Source
"Wholemeal bread is made from wholegrains that have been milled to a fine texture, giving a plain brown appearance." (Dowling 2018)Source
"Designed primarily for processing photographs, current algorithms do not take certain important factors into account, namely the fact that there are often fewer parallel lines in a painting than in a photograph." (Simon 2021)Source
"The scheme has successfully helped the local population to create entire new villages built with rammed earth." (Ciancio 2015)Source
"Jurors themselves, however, may face more significant personal difficulties in discharging their duties, including significant pressure associated with public scrutiny." (Lindquist 2023)Multiple Central Adjectives
Rarely, there may be more than one central adjective. In this case we have to examine the derivation of the adjectives to make a decision about the correct order. Non-derived adjectives come first, then deverbal adjectives (derived from a verb) adjectives, and lastly denominal (derived from nouns) adjectives, as in the schema below:
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There is a great need to move beyond words and small incremental changes, and take larger steps towards low-carbon and sustainable plastics." (Bauer and Nielsen 2021)Notes
In the example above, "small" is a non-derived adjective and "incremental" is a denominal adjective, so the order is "small incremental". Note that some of these denominal adjectives might also be categorized as classifiers rather than descriptors, depending on the context and their use.Adjective Order: Descriptors and Classifiers
It is rare to find multiple classifiers and rarer still to find multiple descriptors AND multiple classifiers. However, in academic and especially scientific and technical texts you may find complex noun premodification. In the example below the head noun is modified by the noun "writing" and "writing system" is modified by the classifier "Chinese" and the descriptor "extraordinary".Source
"How then, do we make sense of the extraordinary Chinese writing system with its thousands of complex characters?" (Kemp, Winters, and Kelly 2022)Notes
Some adjectives may function as either descriptors or classifiers. In this example extraordinary is always a descriptor, and Chinese is always a classifier. Although "writing" is here classified as a noun, it could plausibly be analysed as a deverbal classifier.Source
"But studies comparing species have seen strong environmental effects on brain evolution." (O’Donnell 2023)Notes
Some adjectives may function as either descriptors or classifiers. In this example environmental is always a classifier, and strong is always a descriptor.Source
"Since 1880, after carbon dioxide emissions took off with the Industrial Revolution, the average global temperature has increased about 1.5F (0.85C)." (Rood 2014)Notes
Some adjectives may function as either descriptors or classifiers. In this example average is a classifier, but in a phrase like "very average results" it would be a descriptor. The order here is the same as it would be if these were both central descriptors; the non-derived adjective "average" comes before the denominal adjective "global".Source
"In Japan open political discussion and participation is discouraged and the media is often influenced by the government." (Cervelli 2023)Notes
Some adjectives may function as either descriptors or classifiers. In this example open is a descriptor and political is a classifier. But is this sentence "There is a long, problematic, and very political history behind the idea of overpopulation" (Fledderjohann and Sochas 2023). it is a descriptor.Summary
Academic writing tends to use more noun modifiers than other types of writing, as in the example below:
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"We worked under the assumption no new fossil fuel extraction projects would be developed, and all existing projects would see production declining at standard industry rates." (Niklas and Teske 2021)Notes
This example has three noun modifiers before the headword "projects" and just one adjective.Many classifiers are derived from nouns (they are denominal adjectives) as you can see from the examples above. And some central descriptors are denominal adjectives. Generally we can say that the nearer an adjective is to a noun, the more noun-like it is. The following is a summary of the order of noun modification:
DeterminerArticles, Demonstratives, Possessives, Quantifiers ❮ NumeralOrdinal and Cardinal Numbers ❮ PeripheralPeripheral Descriptors (mainly non-gradable intensifiers ) ❮ CentralCentral Descriptors (gradable adjectives of size, quality, time, evaluation, etc. ) ❮ PostcentralPostcentral Descriptors (mainly colours) ❮ ClassifierRelational, Restrictive, Affiliative, Tropical (mainly non-gradable derived adjectives) ❮ NounNoun modifier(s) ❮ NounHead Noun