It's called adjectival precedence, and it really is amazing that we're never taught this explicitly but we all absorb and use it unthinkingly.
However, green great dragons can exist if there's a thing called a great dragon — if that's a compound noun. (There's a bird called a superb lyrebird: if it were available in green, which it is not, you would have a green superb lyrebird, and if it were particularly excellent, you could presumably have a superb green superb lyrebird.)
That's the one of the first rules we're taught when we study adjectives in the English language here in Italy. I was surprised that this rule is not even mentioned in schools for you.
DarrenFromFinance on November 24th, 2018 at 22:09 UTC »
It's called adjectival precedence, and it really is amazing that we're never taught this explicitly but we all absorb and use it unthinkingly.
However, green great dragons can exist if there's a thing called a great dragon — if that's a compound noun. (There's a bird called a superb lyrebird: if it were available in green, which it is not, you would have a green superb lyrebird, and if it were particularly excellent, you could presumably have a superb green superb lyrebird.)
Yellowthrone on November 24th, 2018 at 23:08 UTC »
It’s our order of specificity. We consider something’s color more specific than its size, and so on.
mrndcn on November 25th, 2018 at 00:11 UTC »
That's the one of the first rules we're taught when we study adjectives in the English language here in Italy. I was surprised that this rule is not even mentioned in schools for you.