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In English, it's "beauty" before "age"
The Christian Science Monitor looks at something we native English speakers often take for granted: the order of modifiers in English.
Ms. Nichols reproduced a version of a chart showing a hierarchy of modifiers: determiner, quality, size, age, color, origin, material. She gives some examples: a colorful new silk scarf; that silver Japanese car. I've just been looking over a couple of other such charts, and I find that the hierarchy they list goes like this:
Opinion :: size :: age :: shape :: color :: origin :: material :: purpose. (SUZANNE)
May 21, 2007
