this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
75 points (98.7% liked)

languagelearning

14166 readers
1 users here now

Building Solidarity - One Word at a Time

Rules:

  1. No horny posting
  2. No pooh posting
  3. Don't be an ass

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The old grammar rule we all obey without realising | The Guardian

The rule is that multiple adjectives are always ranked accordingly: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. Unlike many laws of grammar or syntax, this one is virtually inviolable, even in informal speech. You simply can’t say My Greek Fat Big Wedding, or leather walking brown boots. And yet until last week, I had no idea such a rule existed.

---

O mark

An O mark, known as marujirushi (丸印) or maru (丸) in Japan and gongpyo (공표(空標), ball mark) in Korea, is the name of the symbol "◯", a circle or used to represent affirmation in East Asia, similar to its Western equivalent of the checkmark ("✓"). Its opposite is the X mark ("✗" or "×").

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] dom@hexbear.net 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The big bad wolf would like a word

[–] edge@hexbear.net 4 points 2 years ago

Aside from ablaut reduplication, you could argue that bad is less of an opinion and more of an objective fact. Maybe falling under purpose, like his purpose is to do bad?

[–] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

There's a competing vowel-ordering rule for consecutive short words, called ablaut reduplication, which can override the adjective order.