No Adjective Ordering Preferences in Jordanian Arabic Grammar

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Syntax

Background:

• The ordering of stacked, non-coordinated adjectives in Arabic linguistics is under-explored.
• Previous research has not extensively investigated the constraints on adjective serialization in Jordanian Arabic (JA).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the presence and constraints of unmarked linear adjective ordering in Jordanian Arabic.
• To determine the factors influencing the acceptability of stacked adjectives in JA.

Main Methods:

• Acceptability judgment tasks were conducted with 197 native speakers of Jordanian Arabic.
• 16 experiments were designed to elicit judgments on various adjective stacking constructions.

Main Results:

• Jordanian Arabic demonstrates no inherent linear ordering for stacked adjectives.
• Acceptability significantly decreases with three or more stacked adjectives, attributed to processing load.
• Attributive adjectives are significantly more acceptable than predicative adjectives.

Conclusions:

• The number of stacked adjectives and their syntactic position (attributive vs. predicative) significantly impact acceptability in JA.
• Processing constraints, including working memory and computational load, likely explain the observed limitations in adjective stacking.
• Findings align with theories emphasizing processing efficiency in syntactic structures.