# Predicting cross-linguistic adjective order with information gain

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.15263 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.15263/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Dec 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Using Information Theory to Characterize Prosodic Typology: The Case of Tone, Pitch-Accent and Stress-Accent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07659/) (2025)
- [Black Big Boxes: Tracing Adjective Order Preferences in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02136/) (2024)
- [A Computational Approach to Analyzing Language Change and Variation in the Constructed Language Toki Pona](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10246/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Languages vary in their placement of multiple adjectives before, after, or surrounding the noun, but they typically exhibit strong intra-language tendencies on the relative order of those adjectives (e.g., the preference for `big blue box' in English, `grande boite bleue' in French, and `alsund=uq al'azraq alkab=ir' in Arabic). We advance a new quantitative account of adjective order across typologically-distinct languages based on maximizing information gain. Our model addresses the left-right asymmetry of French-type ANA sequences with the same approach as AAN and NAA orderings, without appeal to other mechanisms. We find that, across 32 languages, the preferred order of adjectives largely mirrors an efficient algorithm of maximizing information gain.