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.

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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 “×”).

  • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    43·
    7 months ago

    Bosh bash bish

    In a piece for the BBC, The Elements of Eloquence author Mark Forsyth examines a rare exception to the adjectival hierarchy: the Big Bad Wolf. Bad is opinion, and should therefore come first. However, as Forsyth points out, this phrase is too busy obeying another rule I’d never heard of: the rule of ablaut reduplication.

    Other examples of the rule in action include chit-chat, singsong, flipflop and hip-hop. When you shift vowel sounds for effect this way, the vowels always follow a specific order: I, then A, then O. You’d think it was more complicated, that it depended on mood or context, but no, it’s that simple – bosh bash bish.

    I don’t speak my own backward pig-dog language.