In spoken and written language, in colloquial and formal context. Is there a general rule to use in sentences like the following:
"How many broken yellow plastic toys?"
"All those old yellowish lost scholar books."
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2I don't think there are rules applicable universally to everyone and every context. However, I would never like to read anything more than three modifiers in a row. Most style guides may suggest a limit about the same or similar. – Kris Dec 28 '12 at 15:13
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1If someone voted down, could please tell why? – rraallvv Dec 28 '12 at 15:26
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1Suppose you read a rule that said "You can have at most N adjectives". What would happen if you then read a sentence that had N+1 adjectives. Do you think you'd understand it? Do you N+1 would definitively sound wrong and only N sound right? – Mitch Dec 28 '12 at 15:40
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1"It was a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater." – Peter Shor Dec 28 '12 at 16:17
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There are also math papers about "bounded hereditary noetherian prime rings". – Peter Shor Dec 28 '12 at 23:59
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@rraallvv: I've closevoted as Not Constructive because there is not, and could not be, a "general rule". Here's a good instance of a "reasonable" use of four - This is my first true original classical (wow, four adjectives in a row) piece, and I'm not sure how it turned out. The delay makes it sound less... classical, and it sounds pretty mechanical.. But obviously even the writer recognised he was pushing at the limits of normality there. – FumbleFingers Dec 29 '12 at 04:58
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@FumbleFingers I've got a pseudo rule, this page says "There’s no limit to the number of adjectives", but suggests that we would need to place commas in between, also the answer by jlovegren may suggests that sorting the modifiers in a correct way could help chain more adjectives without sounding awkward. – rraallvv Dec 29 '12 at 17:15
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(...continued) It's somewhat subjective thought. That is when it becomes an art for formal written or spoken language. In a colloquial context, it's more likely that three would suffice, four if they are sorted in a correct way. – rraallvv Dec 29 '12 at 17:21
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@rraallvv: Once you go beyond three, you're almost always into "noticeably unusual" linguistic territory. That's to say both speaker/writer and audience/reader would normally be aware the construction was uncommon, and it would usually have been generated at least in part specifically in order to be "different". The example I cited is a relatively rare case where the writer himself probably didn't notice until after he'd written the words, and it might well not even be noticed in speech. Adjective order has been covered before. – FumbleFingers Dec 29 '12 at 17:37
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@rraallvv, Link down. – Pacerier Feb 26 '15 at 11:27
5 Answers
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The answer is seven. Seven adjectives.
Robusto
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2It was a funny unexpected ingenious applicable short informal quick answer – rraallvv Dec 28 '12 at 15:24
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@BillFranke: Certainly you recognize Proust when you hear it, don't you? – Robusto Dec 28 '12 at 15:25
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Never read Proust, I'm sorry to say. One of these days before I die I should, I know, but maybe I have to reread Kant first. – Dec 28 '12 at 15:26
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1@rraallvv: Exactly. Any more would have been excess. Any less, diminution. – Robusto Dec 28 '12 at 15:26
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3This is a sensational answer: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/sensationalism-having-seven-adjectives-single-headline – MetaEd Dec 28 '12 at 15:36
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@MετάEd: Mr Bulman counted the number of words, not the number of adjectives. There are 7 words, yes, but only 6 adjectives: "brand new" is a two-word adjective. – Dec 28 '12 at 15:48
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2-1 references? otherwise this is wrong. Wrong, smarmy and condescending. – bharal Dec 28 '12 at 16:35
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3@bharal: Surely you must mean it is a wrong, smarmy, condescending, horrible, no-good, inadequate, spurious answer. – Robusto Dec 28 '12 at 16:38
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+1 I really enjoyed trying to find seven modifiers, it could be a good exercise for vocabulary, and even part of a test in english class for non native speakers or scholars – rraallvv Dec 29 '12 at 02:13
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You can have as many as you like, consistent with the patience of your readers or listeners.
Barrie England
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No rules.
But I'd opine, FWIW, (not much), off the top of my head, that you'd get away with three on most occasions without it being too too obvious that you were pushing the limits, and that beyond that you'd probably want some special euphony or alliterative effect or other special-case reason, to make it seem other than just strained, "try-hard", or plain wrong.
Russell McMahon
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+1 for "no rules", because clearly, surely, obviously, intuitively, and certainly there aren't any fixed rules – not for adjectives, and not for adverbs, either. – J.R. Dec 28 '12 at 19:29
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A general rule for multiple adjectives modifying one noun in English orders the adjectives by their semantic category:
value > size > dimension > various physical properties > color
e.g., nice fat long crispy dark-brown pretzels.
See the citation in the first paragraph on p.2 of Kemmerer et al (2008) for more on this. My guess is that the major consideration in acceptability of multi-adjective noun phrases is that all of the adjectives refer to orthogonal characteristics of the object referred to. It would not do, for example, to have two different color adjectives.
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1The question as I see it is about the count*, not the order**. You might want to offer this as a very useful and relevant comment. – Kris Dec 29 '12 at 06:02
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@Kris: Perhaps that's true about the question, but I think the meat of this response is pertinent enough to warrant it being its own answer. After all, it does answer the question, in an indirect way: The more correct the semantic ordering, the more adjectives you can pile on before it begins to sound awkward. Let me see if I can do this right: I think this is a valuable, relevant, well-researched, too-big-for-a-comment, upvote-worthy answer. – J.R. Dec 29 '12 at 15:09
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Also in the same paragraph "…adjectives that denote objective, absolute, inherent properties of entities, like color, tend to occur closer to the modified noun than adjectives that denote subjective, relativistic, context-sensitive properties, like value". Interesting – rraallvv Dec 29 '12 at 16:51
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As with any art form, the more skilled you are at writing, the more bizarre your writing can be. Kris's comment about 3 adjectives in a row is standard and I agree with it, but the first example, "broken yellow color toys", doesn't work for me, and the second, "old yellowish lost scholar books" is even less successful. Barrie's pragmatic approach seems sage advice. Another way of saying it is: However many you can get away with chaining together. Readers aren't very patient about that kind of thing if it happens often.
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And, as you can see, some readers aren't very patient about anything they just happen to disagree with, whether or not there's a reason to disagree. So the best advice is to be like the James Joyce of Finnegans Wake and write for yourself instead of for your readers. – Dec 28 '12 at 15:51
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This is by far the best answer. People, put your votes in yonder box please. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Dec 28 '12 at 16:41
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Of course "broken yellow color toys" doesn't work, because "color" is a superfluous word there (which is why I changed it in the O.P.'s question). But you're right about the patience of readers, even though there are some notable novelty exceptions, such as the little bathing suit, Alexander's crummy day, and the mythical creature @PeterShor mentioned. – J.R. Dec 28 '12 at 19:23
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@J.R.: I wasn't thinking clearly enough or I would have said something about "yellow color" being a direct translation from Chinese (or some other language) where the word "color" is required to ensure that the listener knows that 黃色 (huángsè) is not some other word: Chinese has so many homophones that it's often necessary to add a word for clarity. I don't remember whether it's necessary in Japanese (黃色 = kiiro), in which the combination is very familiar to my ears, but I think it is. – Dec 28 '12 at 23:41