ABSTRACT
Word order can be described and explained from different theoretical perspectives. To begin with, this chapter describes the word order of multiple-attributive subordinate constructions in Chinese. The description is then extended to multiple-attributive construction, subject-predicate construction, appositional construction, serial-modal-verb construction and personal name in both Chinese and English. A cognitive perspective and the information theory are finally adopted to provide an overall explanation for the order of attributives. Two points will be made in this chapter: (1) The description and explanation are interactive and alternatively progressive; (2) information structure or data structure can be used to revisit the linguistic structure for a better understanding of the relation between form and meaning.
