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I'm not one hundered percent sure if these two adjectives in this phrase

"One coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils"

are classifiers or descriptors. I don't think they are gradable (as in I don't think the use of 'very' and so on is optimal in this case, however I might be wrong) but they also seem like descriptive characteristics, so I'm a bit confused.

I am using Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, according to which: Descriptors are adjectives that describe color, size and weight, chronology and age, emotion, and other characteristics. They are typically gradable. (Tall, Black, Dead, Empty, Appropriate, Lovely, Thin,...)

Classifiers limit or restrict a noun's referent, rather than describing characteristics in the way that descriptors do. They can a)limit the referent of a noun in relation to other referents (additional, average, chief, complete, different, direct,) b)identify the national or social group of a referent (Chinese, American,...) c)topical - lother classifiers give the subject area or specific type of a noun (Human, industrial, legal, sexual, mental, exponential...)

Some words may be both in different sentences (popular girl - desriptor, popular vote - classifier)

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    "Classifiers are not generally a feature of English or other European languages, although classifier-like constructions are found with certain nouns." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Dec 25, 2020 at 19:56
  • 'Deliberate' not gradable? It's got a 'more' in front of it here. // The subclassification of adjective usages I've found most logical/useful is (as discussed by Kullenberg) is classifier / identifier / descriptor. But note that an adjective isn't fixed in one subclass: 'The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a species of bear found across North America and Eurasia' [classifying] / "Look at those bears – the brown one is cute" [identifying] / 'A tiny brown baby bear appeared' [descriptive]. Your sentence needs more context to decide on usages here. Language broadens, allowing apparent ...
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 26, 2020 at 13:18
  • grading of even logically ungradable adjectives ('We're going more nuclear' ... shorthand for 'We're planning to use a greater proportion of nuclear energy'). '' That said, I'd opt for the 'classifying' classification here: chance ('coincidental' here) versus deliberate evil. I can't see how 'more deliberate' really works though ... perhaps diminished responsibility = 'less deliberate / culpable'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Dec 26, 2020 at 14:40

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