ORDERING OF MODIFIER ELEMENTS IN A NOMINAL PHRASE

Which adjective comes first in a nominal phrase with more than one adjective is usually a problem for users of English. It is therefore not in any way overemphasised to find a simple way of ordering them. For instance, given we have the elements: ‘spitting’, ‘big’, ‘Asian’, ‘cobra’, ‘black’ and ‘a’ for a nominal phrase, how do we order the modifying elements?  This is the primary aim of this present piece.

A nominal phrase or group (in Grammatics) is a word or, usually, a set of words which points to an entity in any dimension, (concrete, abstract, countable, uncountable, etc.) and usually takes on grammatical roles such as subject, object, adverbial, and complement. The structural composition of a phrase can be given as: (M)H(Q) in which M which stands for Modifier and Q which stands for Qualifier are optional and it is only H which represents Head word that is absolutely necessary for there to be grammatical a nominal phrase. For example, in ‘The lazy boy outside the class’, ‘the lazy’ is the M, ‘boy’ the H and ‘outside the class’ is the Q. Among the three structural elements of the nominal phrase, M is the most complex as it can accommodate almost infinite number of constitutive elements. Though Q can also comprise more than one element, the question of which element comes first is not normally a problem. Since the M element is the most complex, let us focus our attention on it.  

The modifier of a nominal phrase is often made up of articles such as ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’; demonstratives such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’ and ‘those’; possessives such as ‘my’, ‘her’, ‘the boy’s’ and ‘their’; quantifiers such as ‘all’, ‘many’, ‘three’ and ‘few’; and epithets (adjectives) such as ‘tall’, ‘white’, ‘stupid’ and ‘serious’. For ease of understanding, I categorise the constitutive elements of a Modifier into two: Determiner and Epithet where Determiner comprises articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers; and Epithet stands for adjectives. To systematise how we get to this point, we may consider the following diagram:

Nominal Group (NG) >> M(odifier) + H(ead word) + Q(ualifier).

M(odifier) >> D(eterminers) + E(pithet).

This is where the work begins. Need we say that D precedes E in a modifier? This is always the case. While the combinatory and numerical possibilities of Determiner elements are particularly restricted, there is no limitation to how many adjectives can make up the epithet and this is where the issue of which adjective in the epithet is to come first and which one is to follow becomes a problem. Generally, the combination of the determiners and the various kinds of epithets that might follow them has been, for the purpose of memorability, reduced to one simple acronym: DODASCOM.

What does it mean, DODASCOM? It means the following:

D – Determiners: articles (as ‘a’), quantifiers (as ‘many), possessives (as ‘my’), and demonstratives (as ‘this’)

O – Opinion: e.g., interesting, fascinating, ugly, boring, delicious, etc.

D – Dimension: e.g., small, narrow, scanty, spacious, etc.

A – Age: e.g., new, old, modern, ancient, 19th century, etc.

S – Shape: e.g., round, oval, triangular, etc.

C – Colour: e.g., red, yellow, blue, etc.

O – Origin: e.g., Italian, Nigerian, America, etc.

M – Materials: e.g., woollen, wooden, plastic, earthen, etc.

One would have taken note of the fact that while only the first D stands for the determiners, the remaining letters O, D, A, S, C, O, and M represent the epithet. What is being advocated here is that when we have a nominal phrase with various adjectives constituting the epithet, we should use the ordered semantic categorisations outlined above as a template for ordering them. Let us get back to the example in the first paragraph and see if the template would work.

The elements in the phrase are ‘spitting’, ‘big’, ‘Asian’, ‘cobra’, ‘black’ and ‘a’. In this, the head word is ‘cobra’ while the remaining words are modifiers. Let us now arrange them the way they would be grammatical. According to the template, the first thing to look for is the Determiners (D). The only determiner in the phrase is an article ‘a’. What to follow is Opinion (O). The opinion here is roughly ‘spitting’. Dimension (D) is next and the dimension found here is ‘big’. There is neither Age (A) nor Colour (C) in the phrase, making us to proceed to the next category: Origin (O). The word standing for Origin here which is the next category to follow is ‘Asian’. Since there is nothing standing for Material, we are done with the ordering and the result is:

A(D) spitting(O) big(D) black (C) Asian (O)        cobra(Head word)

Another example is:

A(D) handsome(O) big(D) young(A) stout(S) black(C) American(O)           engineer (Head word)

Can we also try to generate our own examples by using the template and solve the problems we might encounter together?