Even more subtly, there are things like adjective order that are also an important part of the english language that most native speakers just learn innately. Saying them out of order doesn't necessarily change the meaning of the phrase, but it sure sounds odd to a native speaker.

As an example, "a cute little paisley cat" would be considered the correct order, while "a paisley cute little cat" would not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjective#Adjective_order