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Bilalova Kh.A. [Multiple adjectives placement patterns in English] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 4. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/03FLSK421.pdf (in Russian).

Multiple adjectives placement patterns in English

Bilalova Khadizha Aliyarovna
Dagestan State University, Makhachkala, Russia
E-mail: khadizha@inbox.ru

Abstract. The article deals with the multiple prenominal adjectives ordering within a noun phrase in English. In particular, the analysis aims to identify the factors which govern prenominal adjective order. According to numerous studies based on structuralism approaches premodifying adjectives tend to follow a rather strict ordering (qualifying > descriptive (size > shape >age > colour) > participle > provenance > relational). We propose to give a conceptual basis to these adjective sequences.

As a result of the conducted research, it is confirmed that the syntagmatics of pre-modifying adjuncts in English complex noun phrases relative to its core has the following distribution trends: subjective qualitative descriptors → objective relative descriptors. Adjective types that imply some semantic role such as agent, instrument, source, are conceptually and hence also syntactically in close proximity to the noun they modify. The more “objective” adjective types representing semantic categories such as size, shape, age and colour are next in proximity. More “subjective” qualifications such as great, beautiful, interesting are least inherent to any entity denoted by the noun and consequently at the greatest distance from it. In other words, adjective sequences depend on the principle of conceptual proximity, which is based on a close semantic connection between an adjective and the noun it defines.

Keywords: adjective order; noun phrase; conceptual foundations of syntax; semantic roles; the English language; adjective strings; adjective types; the principle of conceptual proximity

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