Introduction

This chapter sets out the basic structure of premodifier order, which the rest of the book will explain and discuss. It argues for three main points. First, premodifier order is a matter of zones (each containing one word, or several, or none), rather than of individual words. Second, there are four zones. Finally, there are three types of order: (a) ‘unmarked’ order, across zones, in which words occur in the grammatically set order of the zones; (b) ‘marked’ order, across zones, in which a user may flout the unmarked order for certain stylistic purposes; (c) ‘free’ order, within one zone, in which words may grammatically occur in any order. Those points will be asserted as empirical facts evident from the examples given; but the reader may prefer to treat them as working hypotheses, since the chapters to follow will substantiate them by explaining the nature of the zones and their order.

The concept of premodification zone will be introduced, the nature of each zone will be outlined, and each of the zones will be named. The concepts will be developed through much of the chapter. The rest of the chapter sets out the nature of the zones (§2.2), and the types of order (§2.3). The conclusion (§2.4) sums up, and looks forward to later chapters.