In contrasting pairs like this, the form without the prefix comes first. You can’t say “abusage and usage” of word order.
No, I don’t know why the short one comes first. It just does.
- So it has to be tangible and intangible assets, treated and untreated wood, skies both clear and unclear,
- The alternate order doesn’t seem to grate with Dutch speakers: I’ve just been editing a text on “Ongeslachtelijke en geslachtelijke voortplanting” but in English it’s got to be “Sexual and asexual reproduction“
- Dutch in particular has a written form for such things that can be thoroughly confusing in English: using brackets to come up with (ab)usage. That just makes no sense to us; please don’t do it.
So: a rule of grammar that may be logical or illogical, but needs to be observed nevertheless.
Prevalence: moderate. A general grammatical point, rather than being restricted to specific fields.
Frequency: low. Just occasional corrections, like the one listed above. But it’s an error that stands out as unnatural.
Native: no. We probably wouldn’t even be able to tell you there’s a rule. But we wouldn’t break it.
Advanced Dunglish 