Oh, i know there is an order -- numbers first, for example. I was wondering whether there are some types that always come last. Is it more: there words come first, these come last, the rest in the middle , or is it "here's a way to put them in order", which is what your rule about most-controlling adjectives implies.
The few quick examples I thought of all had color coming last, but you're absolutely right about "white stone house".
while these categories clearly have an order, I think there's nothing inherent in each category that puts it in the position it's in. IE, there's nothing about "Material" adjectives that means they SHOULD be close to the noun, and nothing about "Size" adjectives that mean they HAVE to come first; it's just habit. IMU*O.
The few quick examples I thought of all had color coming last, but you're absolutely right about "white stone house".
And, of course, a quick google turns up one proposed answer (from http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/cyc/a/adj.htm, but it turns up in other places as well). In order, English uses:
"Opinion or judgment -- beautiful, ugly, easy, fast, interesting
Size -- small, tall, short, big
Age -- young, old, new, historic, ancient
Shape -- round, square, rectangular
Color -- red, black, green, purple
Nationality -- French, Asian, American, Canadian, Japanese
Material -- wooden, metallic, plastic, glass, paper
Purpose or Qualifier -- foldout sofa, fishing boat, racing car"
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