Dalcurian adjective hierarchy

Homepage

Return to Dalcurian Adjectives

In English, when we use more than one adjective in succession, there tends to be a particular order that each adjective follows according to its descriptive nature, (although this is not a static rule of grammar). Look at these sentences:

• The beautiful, tall Italian lady.
• Her short, black, shiny hair.
• Those square wooden hat boxes.
• Some delicious, Thai food.
• That dilapitated, little hunting cabin.
• A wonderful, old British touring car.
• An expensive, antique, silver mirror.

Each of the adjectives have a certain descriptive feature and normally follow one another in a set pattern:

determiner	observation	physical description : size age shape colour	origin	material	qualifier	noun
the	beautiful	tall	Italian	-	-	lady
her	-	short black	-	-	shiny	hair
those	-	square	-	wooden	-	hat boxes
some	delicious	-	Thai	-	-	food
that	delapitated	little	-	-	-	hunting cabin
a	wonderful	old	british	-	-	touring car
an	expensive	antique	-	silver	-	mirror

On occasions, the observation and physical description adjectives can be interchangeable:

• The tall, beautiful Italian lady.
• That little, dilapidated hunting cabin.

But for the most part, it doesn’t sound quite right:

• An old, wonderful British touring car.
• An antique, expensive silver mirror.

And it sounds very odd if we place the origin adjective first:

• The Italian, tall beautiful lady.
• A British, wonderful old touring car.
• Some Thai delicious food.

With the exception of origin adjectives, Dalcurian has no peticular hierarchy. Placement can be purely down to which is important or which is to be stressed (if any). However, the origin adjective ALWAYS goes last, and is introduced as a relative taÞ clause:

• Di æanasiaÞáli; viténa; siasáj, taÞ Itälátsi. lit: The beautiful, tall lady, who is Italian.
• EÞöa qélafri; ésenej, taÞ Tælátsi. lit: Some delicious food, which is Thai.

A semi-colon is used to set off multiple adjectives.