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The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth













Forsyth, he is adept at adding spice to received wisdom and popularizing the findings of academic linguists. While this isn’t an original insight on the part of Mr.

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth

But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.” Forsyth explains that, in English, adjectives follow the pattern opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose-“so you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife.

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth

Yet I have to admit that, until reading Mark Forsyth’s “The Elements of Eloquence,” I had never paused to analyze with any precision the way in which we customarily sequence adjectives.

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth

Instead, she said, he should have written “great green dragon.” Instinctively we agree with Tolkien’s mother. When his mother read it, she remarked that his reference to a “green great dragon” was a mistake.















The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth