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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?

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    If a noun group is too long the reader gets lost and if a reader gets lost in a sentence, as in your example, it is stylistically botchwork.
    – rogermue
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 1:01

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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.

Is there a rule/principle that limits the length of a noun phrase?

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.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

Edited to add: As Professor Lawler pointed out, language must be speakable, placing another real limit on it.

Any noun phrase long enough to be unpronounceable within a long human lifetime (say, 100 years) would be ungrammatical.

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    To be language, it must be speakable. Any noun phrase long enough to be unpronounceable within a long human lifetime (say, 100 years) would be ungrammatical. Unlike mathematics, the real world does not allow infinities; only infinitives.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 0:44
  • ASL is not "speakable," although perhaps you're counting approximate translation to a language that is spoken. Mathematical language allows proofs that cannot be spoken within the longest human lifetime. These are verified by computer programs that are in turn verified by mathematicians. An English sentence that's sufficiently long would be unintelligible but it could be generated by recognized recursive grammatical rules. It seem somewhat arbitrary to find such a sentence in violation of the rules.
    – deadrat
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 2:10
  • I wouldn't say that a noun phrase that took 100 years to speak is ungrammatical, just not recommended. Unless you're doing some serious filibustering.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Sep 4, 2015 at 3:34
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Make it as long as you like.

The only upper limit is your readers memory. If your reader has forgotten what the noun was by the time you get to the verb, consider your text poorly written.

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