The ruby in the hand of the devil at the top of the mountain in the
country conquered by the army of devils existing until now does not make any sense.
Like this sentence, is it allowed to modify a word to the infinite point and make an infinitely long noun phrase? People just cut it off at some point and do not go on any further, and instead just create another sentence. Is there a rule/principle that limits the length of a noun phrase?
Best Answer
Language isn't math (or what I would imagine math is) where absolutes are clear and defined.
The purpose of language is to communicate. If communication is not your goal, you can do whatever you want with words, including to write a book that is one long, circular, never ending sentence (it would have no beginning, either.) A person could start wherever they wanted to, and it would be just as incomprehensible (and permissible) as at any different point.
But if you want to communicate, language has to have limitations to be intelligible.
There is no rule. One limits a noun phrase or any other aspect of a sentence based on comprehensibility. There are math equations that are completely beyond me, and there are sentences that I have to read several times to understand. The latter are not "wrong".
Noam Chomsky's famous sentence is grammatically correct, but it doesn't really mean anything that reflects our reality.
Edited to add: As Professor Lawler pointed out, language must be speakable, placing another real limit on it.