Abstract
This article offers evidence, which is based on acceptability judgement tasks, in favour of the absence of unmarked linear serializations of stacked, non-coordinated adjectives in Jordanian Arabic (JA). Results from 16 experiments of acceptability judgements from 197 native speakers of JA point to the fact that JA places no adjective ordering. However, two factors are found to be significant. The first factor pertains to the number of stacked, non-coordinated adjectives. All possible word order patterns of different stacked adjectives are (fully) acceptable with two stacked adjectives. However, constructions with three or more stacked adjectives are significantly degraded. This is universally held, regardless of the type of the stacked adjectives (size, color, shape, etc.). We ascribe this to the third-factor effects (Chomsky in Linguist Inq 36(1):1–22, 2005) (particularly with reference to working memory and processing load) in restricting the possible number of adjectives in a given construction. A second factor relates to the syntactic position of the adjectives (attributive vs. predicative). The results reveal that attributive adjectives are significantly more acceptable than predicative adjectives (which can also be freely stacked in JA). This is also attributed to the effects of these factors favoring minimal computations. We follow O’Grady (Front Psychol 12:660296, 2021) in that the processing of across-clausal phenomena (as is the case with predicative adjectives) is more demanding than intra-clausal ones (as is the case with attributive adjectives).
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26 July 2023
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09981-0
Notes
We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for insightful comments and criticisms.
'Stacked adjectives' refer to adjectives which are not coordinated as in the man with a big, red car. In this article, we tackled the unmarked case of adjective orderings. Marked occurrences (which are normally accompanied by special meanings and intonations) are beyond the scope of the present study.
All examples in this paper are from JA unless otherwise stated.
In Modern Standard Arabic, the adjective also agrees in case with its nominal (see Ryding, 2005).
For completeness, there is an exception to this rule which arises when the noun is a plural and inanimate entity. In such cases, the adjective is inflected for the singular rather than the plural. We will not comment on this issue here.
For most speakers of JA, the subject in a predicative sentence should be definite, so the following example is deemed ungrammatical:
This is expected as the adjective in predicative constructions normally stands for the new-information content, whereas the noun expresses the old-information content. Elements expressing old-information are normally definite in JA (see Jarrah 2019 along these lines).
It is worth pointing out that in this paper we do not examine the effect of the definiteness of the head noun on adjective ordering as this effect is barely correlated with the presence of adjectives in JA grammar. This is why definite and indefinite nominal phrases were used interchangeably in the design (However, in some languages like Greek (see Alexiadou & Wilder, 1998), adjective ordering appears to be freer in indefinite phrases.) Additionally, we do not compare whether certain combinations of adjectives (i.e., semantic classes of adjectives) resulted in higher or lower scores than others (see Sproat & Shih, 1991; Truswell, 2004). For example, we do not examine whether a combination of two intersective adjectives may result in a higher score that a combination of one subsective adjective and an intersective adjective. In this research, our main focus is exclusively placed on the effect of the number of adjectives and their position on their orderings.
Low-educated participants refer to those who did not receive university education. However, they are all literate (i.e., can write and read), given the fact the primary education in Jordan is compulsory.
We draw on the distinction raised by Bard et al. (1996) between grammaticality which concerns the linguistic stimulus, acceptability which concerns how speakers perceive the linguistic stimulus, and acceptability judgement which is “the speaker’s response to the linguist’s inquiries” (p. 33).
It is worth noting that several proposals have been advanced in the related literature to account for the derivation of constructions that contain (attributive) adjectives (for instance Fassi Fehri, 1999 argues for adjectival movement along with N-movement within the DP whereas Cinque, 2005 adopts the view of the movement of constituents that do not contain the N head nor adjectival movement, a proposal widely known as phrasal or roll-up movement). The interested reader is referred to these works for discussion and motivation.
Following the general practice, we provide as literal a translation as possible for the ill-formed examples to help the reader. However, we do not assign a acceptability judgement to translations.
It should be noted that in our experiment we included all possible word order between the three adjectives. For instance, the following sentences are also checked by native speakers of JA in order to show that any order is permissible:
(i)
sallamit-ʕala
zalamih
mutawaadˤiʕ
ʔasmar
χitjaar
greeted
man
humble
brown
old
1
14
12
‘I greeted a humble old brown man.’
(ii)
sallamit-ʕala
zalamih
ʔasmar
mutawaadˤiʕ
χitjaar
greeted
man
brown
humble
old
14
1
12
‘I greeted a humble old brown man.’
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Appendix I
Appendix I
In this appendix, we provide a description of and four examples from each experiment.
Table
13 summarizes the purpose of each experiment below.
Experiment 1
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences that have two stacked attributive adjectives that comply with Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.Footnote 14
(1) | (a) | ʔiʃtareet | ɡamiisˤ | tˤawiil | hindi | |
bought | shirt | long | Indian | |||
4 | 15 | |||||
‘I bought a long Indian shirt.’ | ||||||
(b) | ʔitˤ-tˤaalib | ɡaddam | ʃariħ | mufiid | tˤawiil | |
the-student | presented | explanation | useful | long | ||
1 | 4 | |||||
‘The student presented a long useful explanation.’ | ||||||
(c) | laɡeet | bðˤaaʕah | sajʔah | sˤiinjjih | ||
found.1 | goods | bad | Chinese | |||
1 | 15 | |||||
‘I found bad Chinese goods.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | tˤaawlih | kbiirih | so:da | ||
bought | table | big | black | |||
3 | 14 | |||||
‘I bought a big black table.’ | ||||||
(e) | ʔiʃtareet | tˤaawlih | ʕariidˤah | ħamra | ||
bought | table | wide | red | |||
8 | 14 | |||||
‘I bought a wide red table.’ | ||||||
For instance, the sentence in (10a) above includes two adjectives (length and origin) in the attributive position; they conform to the linear order of Scott (2002).
Experiment 2
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain two attributive adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott's (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(2) | (a) | ʔiʃtareet | ɡamiisˤ | hindi | tˤawiil | |
bought | shirt | Indian | long | |||
15 | 4 | |||||
‘I bought a long Indian shirt.’ | ||||||
(b) | ʔitˤ-tˤaalib | ɡaddam | ʔiʃariħ | tˤawiil | mufiid | |
the-student | presented | explanation | long | useful | ||
4 | 1 | |||||
‘The student presented a long and useful explanation.’ | ||||||
(c) | laɡeet | bðˤaaʕah | sajʔah | sˤiinjjih | ||
found.1 | goods | bad | Chinese | |||
1 | 15 | |||||
‘I found bad Chinese goods.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | tˤaawlih | so:da | kbiirih | ||
bought | table | black | big | |||
14 | 3 | |||||
‘I bought a big black table.’ | ||||||
(e) | ʔiʃtareet | tˤaawlih | ħamra | ʕariidˤah | ||
bought | table | red | wide | |||
14 | 8 | |||||
‘I bought a wide red table.’ | ||||||
Experiment 3
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain two predicative adjectives that comply with Scott's (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data:
(3) | (a) | ʔiʃ-ʃariħ | kaan | mufiid | tˤawiil |
def-explanation | be.pst.3sg.m | useful | long | ||
1 | 4 | ||||
‘The explanation was useful and long.’ | |||||
(b) | ʔil-beet | kaan | mrattab | ʕaali | |
def-house | be.pst.3sg.m | nice | high | ||
1 | 5 | ||||
‘The house was nice and high.’ | |||||
(c) | ʔil-burdʒ | kaan | tˤawiil | ʕaali | |
def-tower | be.pst.3sg.m | long | high | ||
4 | 5 | ||||
‘The tower was long and high.’ | |||||
(d) | ʔil-baħar | kaan | kbiir | ʕamiig | |
DEF-sea | be.pst.3sg.m | big | Deep | ||
3 | 7 | ||||
‘The sea was big and deep.’ | |||||
(e) | ʔizzalamih | kaan | χitjaar | ʔasmar | |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | old | brown | ||
12 | 14 | ||||
‘The man was old and brown.’ | |||||
Experiment 4
Experiment 4 aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain two predicative adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott's (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(4) | (a) | ʔiʃ-ʃariħ | kaan | tˤawiil | mufiid |
def-explanation | be.pst.3sg.m | long | useful | ||
4 | 1 | ||||
‘The explanation was useful, long.’ | |||||
(b) | ʔil-beet | kaan | ʕaali | mrattab | |
def-house | be.pst.3sg.m | high | nice | ||
5 | 1 | ||||
‘The house was nice, high.’ | |||||
(c) | ʔil-burdʒ | kaan | ʕaali | tˤawiil | |
def-tower | be.pst.3sg.m | high | long | ||
5 | 4 | ||||
‘The tower was long, high.’ | |||||
(d) | ʔil-baħar | kaan | ʕamiig | kbiir | |
def-sea | be.pst.3sg.m | deep | big | ||
7 | 3 | ||||
‘The sea was big and deep.’ | |||||
(e) | ʔizzalamih | kaan | ʔasmar | χitjaar | |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | brown | old | ||
14 | 12 | ||||
‘The man was old and brown.’ | |||||
Experiment 5
Experiment 5 aims to explore JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three attributive adjectives that comply with Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(5) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | mutawaadˤiʕ | χitjaar | ʔasmar |
greeted | man | humble | old | brown | ||
1 | 12 | 14 | ||||
‘I greeted a humble old brown man.’ | ||||||
(b) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | mrattab | kabiir | ʔasˤfar | |
rode | in-bus | nice | big | yellow | ||
1 | 3 | 14 | ||||
‘I got on a nice big yellow bus.’ | ||||||
(c) | sallamit-ʕala | mʕallim | muħtaram | sˤɣiir | ʔurduni | |
greeted | teacher | polite | young | Jordanian | ||
1 | 12 | 15 | ||||
‘I greeted a polite young Jordanian teacher.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | mrattab | turki | gutˤni | |
bought | shirt | nice | Turkish | cottony | ||
1 | 15 | 16 | ||||
‘I bought a nice Turkish cottony shirt.’ | ||||||
(e) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | tˤawiil | ʕariiðˤ | ʔabjaðˤ | |
rode | in-bus | long | wide | white | ||
4 | 8 | 14 | ||||
‘I got on a long, wide, white bus.’ | ||||||
Experiment 6
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three attributive stacked adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(6) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | ʔasmar | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ |
greeted | man | brown | old | humble | ||
14 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘I greeted a humble old brown man.’ | ||||||
(b) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʔasˤfar | kabiir | mrattab | |
rode | in-bus | yellow | big | nice | ||
14 | 3 | 1 | ||||
‘I got on a nice big yellow bus.’ | ||||||
(c) | sallamit-ʕala | mʕallim | ʔurduni | sˤaɣiir | muħtaram | |
greeted | teacher | Jordanian | young | polite | ||
15 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘I greeted a polite young Jordanian teacher.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | gutˤni | turki | mrattab | |
bought | shirt | cottony | Turkish | nice | ||
16 | 15 | 1 | ||||
‘I bought a nice cottony Turkish shirt.’ | ||||||
(e) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʔabjaðˤ | ʕariiðˤ | tˤawiil | |
rode | in-bus | whote | wide | long | ||
14 | 8 | 4 | ||||
‘I got on a long, wide, white bus.’ | ||||||
Experiment 7
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three attributive stacked adjectives that do not maintain a certain order between them.
Consider the following selected examples from the dataFootnote 15:
(7) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | χitjaar | ʔasmar | mutawaadˤiʕ |
greeted | man | old | brown | humble | ||
12 | 14 | 1 | ||||
‘I greeted a humble old brown man.’ | ||||||
(b) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʔasˤfar | mrattab | kabiir | |
rode | in-bus | yellow | nice | big | ||
14 | 1 | 3 | ||||
‘I got on a nice big yellow bus.’ | ||||||
(c) | sallamit -ʕala | mʕallim | ʔurduni | muħtaram | sˤaɣiir | |
greeted | teacher | Jordanian | polite | young | ||
15 | 1 | 12 | ||||
‘I greeted a polite young Jordanian teacher.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | turki | mrattab | gutˤni | |
bought | shirt | Turkish | nice | cottony | ||
15 | 1 | 16 | ||||
‘I bought a nice cottony Turkish shirt.’ | ||||||
(e) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | tˤawiil | ʕariiðˤ | ʔabjað | |
rode | in-bus | long | white | wide | ||
4 | 14 | 8 | ||||
‘I got on a long, wide and white bus.’ | ||||||
Experiment 8
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three predicative adjectives that comply with Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(8) | (a) | ʔizzalamih | kaan | mutawaadˤiʕ | χitjaar | ʔasmar |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | humble | old | brown | ||
1 | 12 | 14 | ||||
‘The man was humble, old and brown.’ | ||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | mrattab | kabiir | ʔasˤfar | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | nice | big | yellow | ||
1 | 3 | 14 | ||||
‘The bus was nice, big and yellow.’ | ||||||
(c) | li-mʕallim | kaan | muħtaram | sˤaɣiir | ʔurduni | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | polite | young | Jordanian | ||
1 | 12 | 15 | ||||
‘The teacher was polite, young and Jordanian.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | mrattab | turki | gutˤni | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | nice | Turkish | cottony | ||
1 | 15 | 16 | ||||
‘The shirt was nice, cottony and Turkish.’ | ||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | tˤawiil | ʕariiðˤ | ʔabjaðˤ | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | long | wide | white | ||
4 | 7 | 14 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high and fast.’ | ||||||
Experiment 9
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three predicative stacked adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(9) | (a) | ʔizzalamih | kaan | ʔasmar | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | humble | old | brown | ||
14 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘The man was brown, old and humble.’ | ||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔasˤfar | kabiir | mrattab | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | yellow | big | nice | ||
14 | 3 | 1 | ||||
‘The bus was yellow, big and nice.’ | ||||||
(c) | li-mʕallim | kaan | ʔurduni | sˤaɣiir | muħtaram | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | Jordanian | young | polite | ||
15 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘The teacher was Jordanian, young and polite.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | gutˤni | turki | mrattab | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | cottony | Turkish | nice | ||
16 | 15 | 1 | ||||
‘The shirt was Turkish, cottony and nice.’ | ||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔabjaðˤ | ʕariiðˤ | tˤawiil | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | white | wide | long | ||
14 | 8 | 4 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high and fast.’ | ||||||
Experiment 10
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain three predicative stacked adjectives that do not maintain a certain order between them.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(10) | (a) | ʔizzalamih | kaan | ʔasmar | mutawaadˤiʕ | χitjaar |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | brown | humble | old | ||
14 | 1 | 12 | ||||
‘The man was brown, humble and old.’ | ||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔasˤfar | mrattab | kabiir | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | yellow | nice | big | ||
14 | 1 | 3 | ||||
‘The bus was yellow, nice and big.’ | ||||||
(c) | li-mʕallim | kaan | ʔurduni | muħtaram | sˤaɣiir | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | Jordanian | polite | young | ||
15 | 1 | 12 | ||||
‘The teacher was Jordanian, polite and young.’ | ||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | gutˤni | mrattab | turki | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | cottony | nice | Turkish | ||
16 | 1 | 15 | ||||
‘The shirt was Turkish, nice and cottony.’ | ||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔabjaðˤ | tˤawiil | ʕariiðˤ | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | white | long | wide | ||
14 | 4 | 8 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high and fast.’ | ||||||
Experiment 11
This experiment aims to explore JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain four attributive adjectives that comply with Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(11) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | mutawaadˤiʕ | χitjaar | ʔasmar | turki | |
greeted | man | humble | old | brown | Turkish | |||
1 | 12 | 14 | 15 | |||||
‘I greeted a Turkish humble old brown man.’ | ||||||||
(b) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | mrattab | kabiir | ʔasˤfar | jaabaani | ||
rode | in-bus | nice | big | yellow | Japanese | |||
1 | 3 | 14 | 15 | |||||
‘I got on a Japanese, nice big yellow bus.’ | ||||||||
(c) | sallamit-ʕala | mʕallim | muħtaram | naasˤiħ | sˤaɣiir | ʔurduni | ||
greeted | teacher | polite | fat | young | Jordanian | |||
1 | 9 | 12 | 15 | |||||
‘I greeted a polite young, fat Jordanian teacher.’ | ||||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | mrattab | xafiif | turki | gutˤni | ||
bought | shirt | nice | light | Turkish | cottony | |||
1 | 9 | 15 | 16 | |||||
‘I bought a light nice cottony Turkish shirt.’ | ||||||||
(e) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | tˤawiil | ʕaali | ʕariiðˤ | ʔaħmar | ||
rode | in-bus | long | high | wide | red | |||
4 | 5 | 8 | 14 | |||||
‘I got on a long, high, wide red bus.’ | ||||||||
Experiment 12
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain four attributive stacked adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(12) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | turki | ʔasmar | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ |
greeted | man | Turkish | brown | old | humble | ||
15 | 14 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘I greeted a Turkish humble old black man.’ | |||||||
(b) | ʔirkibit | b-baasˤ | jaabaani | ʔasˤfar | kabiir | mrattab | |
rode | in-bus | Japanese | yellow | big | nice | ||
15 | 14 | 3 | 1 | ||||
‘I got on a Japanese nice big yellow bus.’ | |||||||
(c) | sallamit-ʕala | mʕallim | ʔurduni | sˤaɣiir | naasˤiħ | muħtaram | |
greeted | teacher | Jordanian | young | fat | polite | ||
15 | 12 | 9 | 1 | ||||
‘I greeted a polite young fat Jordanian teacher.’ | |||||||
(d) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | gutˤni | turki | xafiif | mrattab | |
bought | shirt | cottony | Turkish | light | nice | ||
16 | 15 | 9 | 1 | ||||
‘I bought a nice cottony light Turkish shirt.’ | |||||||
(e) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʔaħmar | ʕariiðˤ | ʕaali | tˤawiil | |
rode | in-bus | red | wide | high | long | ||
14 | 8 | 5 | 4 | ||||
‘I got on a long, high, wide red bus.’ | |||||||
Experiment 13
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences that contain four attributive stacked adjectives which do not maintain a certain order between them.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(13) | (a) | sallamit-ʕala | zalamih | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ | turki | ʔasmar |
greeted | man | old | humble | Turkish | brown | ||
12 | 1 | 14 | 15 | ||||
‘I greeted a Turkish humble old brown man.’ | |||||||
(b) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʔasˤfar | mrattab | kabiir | jaabaani | |
rode | in-bus | yellow | nice | big | Japanese | ||
3 | 1 | 15 | 14 | ||||
‘I got on a Japanese, nice big yellow bus.’ | |||||||
(c) | ʔiʃtareet | gamiisˤ | gutˤni | mrattab | turki | xafiif | |
bought | shirt | cottony | nice | Turkish | light | ||
16 | 1 | 15 | 9 | ||||
‘I bought a nice cottony light Turkish shirt.’ | |||||||
(d) | rkibit | b-baasˤ | ʕariiðˤ | ʔaħmar | ʕaali | tˤawiil | |
rode | in-bus | wide | red | high | long | ||
8 | 14 | 5 | 4 | ||||
‘I got on a long, high, wide, and red bus.’ | |||||||
Experiment 14
This experiment aims to explore JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain four predicative adjectives that comply with Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(14) | (a) | ʔiz-zalamih | kaan | mutawaadˤiʕ | χitjaar | ʔasmar | turki |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | humble | old | brown | Turkish | ||
1 | 12 | 14 | 15 | ||||
‘The man was Turkish humble old brown.’ | |||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | mrattab | kabiir | ʔasˤfar | jaabaani | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | nice | big | yellow | Japanese | ||
1 | 3 | 14 | 15 | ||||
‘The bus was Japanese, nice big yellow.’ | |||||||
(c) | l-mʕallim | kaan | muħtaram | naasˤiħ | sˤɣiir | ʔurduni | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | polite | fat | young | Jordanian | ||
1 | 9 | 12 | 15 | ||||
‘The teacher was polite young, fat Jordanian.’ | |||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | mrattab | xafiif | turki | gutˤni | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | nice | light | Turkish | cottony | ||
1 | 9 | 15 | 16 | ||||
‘The shirt was light nice cottony Turkish.’ | |||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | tˤawiil | ʕaali | ʕariiðˤ | ʔaħmar | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | long | high | wide | red | ||
4 | 5 | 8 | 14 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high, wide and red.’ | |||||||
Experiment 15
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain four predicative stacked adjectives that follow the reversed order of Scott’s (2002) pattern of serialized adjectives.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(15) | (a) | ʔiz-zalamih | kaan | turki | ʔasmar | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | Turkish | brown | old | humble | ||
15 | 14 | 12 | 1 | ||||
‘The man was Turkish humble old brown.’ | |||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | jaabaani | ʔasˤfar | kabiir | mrattab | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | Japanese | yellow | big | nice | ||
15 | 14 | 3 | 1 | ||||
‘The bus was Japanese, nice big yellow.’ | |||||||
(c) | l-mʕallim | kaan | ʔurduni | sˤaɣiir | naasˤiħ | muħtaram | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | Jordanian | young | fat | polite | ||
15 | 12 | 9 | 1 | ||||
‘The teacher was polite young, fat Jordanian.’ | |||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | gutˤni | turki | xafiif | mrattab | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | cottony | Turkish | light | nice | ||
16 | 15 | 9 | 1 | ||||
‘The shirt was light nice cottony Turkish.’ | |||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔaħmar | ʕariiðˤ | ʕaali | tˤawiil | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | red | wide | high | long | ||
14 | 8 | 5 | 4 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high, wide and red.’ | |||||||
Experiment 16
This experiment aims to examine JA native speakers’ acceptability of 10 sentences which contain four attributive stacked adjectives that do not maintain a certain order between them.
Consider the following selected examples from the data.
(16) | (a) | ʔiz-zalamih | kaan | χitjaar | mutawaadˤiʕ | turki | ʔasmar |
def-man | be.pst.3sg.m | old | humble | Turkish | brown | ||
12 | 1 | 14 | 15 | ||||
‘The man was Turkish humble old brown.’ | |||||||
(b) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔasˤfar | mrattab | kabiir | jaabaani | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | yellow | nice | big | Japanese | ||
2 | 1 | 15 | 14 | ||||
‘The bus was Japanese, nice, big, and yellow.’ | |||||||
(c) | l-mʕallim | kaan | sˤaɣiir | ʔurduni | muħtaram | naasˤiħ | |
def-teacher | be.pst.3sg.m | young | Jordanian | polite | fat | ||
12 | 15 | 1 | 9 | ||||
‘The teacher was polite young, fat, and Jordanian.’ | |||||||
(d) | ʔil-gamiisˤ | kaan | gutˤni | mrattab | turki | xafiif | |
def-shirt | be.pst.3sg.m | cottony | nice | Turkish | light | ||
16 | 1 | 15 | |||||
‘The shirt was light nice cottony, and Turkish.’ | |||||||
(e) | ʔil-baasˤ | kaan | ʔaħmar | ʕaali | ʕariiðˤ | tˤawiil | |
def-bus | be.pst.3sg.m | red | high | wide | long | ||
14 | 5 | 8 | 4 | ||||
‘The bus was long, high, fast and red.’ | |||||||
The following section presents the statistical results of these 16 experiments.
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Alghazo, S., Jarrah, M. No Adjective Ordering Preferences in Jordanian Arabic Grammar. J Psycholinguist Res 52, 1633–1667 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09965-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-023-09965-0