The Unstated Language of Crosswords
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Though nobody ever taught it to you, odds are that for those who clear up a whole lot of crossword puzzles, you’re fluent within the grammar of crosswords. Most crossword fans may clarify that nouns clue nouns, verbs clue verbs, and so forth. Additionally they come to know—subconsciously—that solutions have to be interchangeable with their clues in a sentence, even for classes too specific to have a reputation.
These unstated tenets could be deceptively advanced. Take into account how GALORE could possibly be clued by “aplenty,” however not by “many.” It is because, although you would possibly name all of them adjectives, solely galore and aplenty come after the noun they modify (whereas most different English adjectives come earlier than). Moreover, just by filling in sufficient puzzles, our brains can be taught that multi-word crossword solutions should type what linguists name a syntactic constituent—a bunch of phrases that capabilities collectively as an entire unit, the best way protected and dependable does however protected and doesn’t.
The principles of crosswords are a part of a wealthy set of conventions shared by those that clear up them—and they’re intimately associated to the grammar of language on the whole. Simply as toddlers develop a deep information of various courses of phrases with out being taught what a noun or a verb is, crossword solvers develop sturdy intuitions about what entries are potential and the way they are often clued. These intuitions assist you already know what makes a very good reply, reminiscent of OPRAH (“Founding father of Harpo Productions,” in a 2019 New York Occasions puzzle), WHO GOES THERE (“Sentry’s question,” from 2018), and BANANA SPLIT (“Dessert served in a ship,” per a 2022 entry).
However the actual signal of crossword solvers’ easy familiarity with the foundations is figuring out what makes a dangerous reply, like SUPERB PAN (“Superb factor to fry bacon in”) or ORDER A RYE (“What the whiskey lover would do on the bar”). These duds hail from the work of Journey Payne, a crossword constructor and pace solver identified for his absurdist “Cuckoo Crosswords.” Payne’s Cuckoo Crosswords are (intentionally) full of entries so comically weird that solvers will agree that they don’t have any place in a typical puzzle. One puzzle from 2021 contained the clue “Self-importance on the set of ‘Uncut Gems.’” The reply: ADAM SANDLER’S EGO.
Whereas entries like SAFE AND would flout the essential precepts of the English language, the cuckoo entries in Cuckoo Crosswords are flouting a extra refined, if no much less basic, rule in crosswords. In each circumstances, crossword solvers have discovered by way of expertise what makes a given entry acceptable or cuckoo, and in addition what makes some entries actually nice. Though these guidelines are specific to crosswords, they depend on extra common linguistic intuitions—hard-earned information about language that’s in your mind even though you’ve probably by no means consciously considered it.
Cuckoo solutions reminiscent of ADAM SANDLER’S EGO are completely legitimate English phrases that would simply be substituted for his or her clues in a sentence, structurally the identical as extra acceptable entries like PANDORA’S BOX or ACHILLES’ HEEL. And but, for causes that may be onerous to articulate, they nonetheless aren’t satisfying. Crossword constructors have a reputation for solutions like these: ADAM SANDLER’S EGO, SUPERB PAN, and ORDER A RYE are all “green-paint entries”—as is the reply GREEN PAINT itself.
Some crossword specialists argue that green-paint entries irk solvers as a result of they’re too uncommon in extraordinary language. However you wouldn’t assume twice for those who encountered order a rye (“Hello there, I’d prefer to order a rye”) in every day life—in reality, relying in your pursuits, you’re way more more likely to hear it than a superbly acceptable entry reminiscent of APSE. The actual cause ORDER A RYE is banned from mainstream crossword society has to do with a function of all human language known as “compositionality”: the power to mix smaller items of that means into bigger ones with predictable meanings. Compositionality is what helps you to perceive multi-word phrases—inexperienced paint is paint that’s inexperienced—and sentences you’ve by no means heard earlier than, reminiscent of “Woman Gaga splattered the crossword grid with inexperienced paint.”
Compositionality is a cornerstone of human language, letting us categorical an infinite variety of concepts from a finite variety of phrases. For crossword solvers, although, phrases which can be purely compositional are typically disappointing. A solution like GREEN PAINT is unsatisfying as a result of there’s not a lot to it apart from the that means you get by fusing the 2 phrases collectively. Good multi-word solutions, against this, are someway greater than the sum of their elements. Evaluate GREEN PAINT with GREEN DAY (clued in a 1996 New York Occasions puzzle by “Band with the Grammy-winning album ‘Dookie’”), which refers not in any strategy to a day that’s inexperienced. Linguists name phrases like this “non-compositional” as a result of you must be taught one thing about their meanings as phrases—there isn’t a strategy to get the that means of the entire simply by composing the elements.
Not like the crossword, compositionality is just not black-and-white: Phrases could be totally compositional, solely non-compositional, and every thing in between. Take into account GREEN TEA (“Sushi bar cupful,” per a 2003 New York Occasions puzzle). It’s tea, and it’s inexperienced (sort of). However figuring out these two information doesn’t inform you every thing there may be to learn about inexperienced tea. It additionally has a specific style, its personal historical past, its personal set of resonances. Placing inexperienced meals coloring in black tea would possibly flip it into tea that’s inexperienced, however it could not make it inexperienced tea.
For crossword solutions, the identical logic additionally applies to single phrases. Purely compositional solutions reminiscent of REBROIL (re plus broil, presumably that means one thing like “broil once more”) are extra probably to attract solvers’ ire than phrases like RETURN. Although return is, like rebroil, composed of items (re and flip), its that means is just not so clearly decided by the that means of these items alone: Returning is not only the act of turning once more.
For a crossword reply to essentially excel, it ought to, like Proust’s madeleine, evoke a specific time or place or milieu. That’s why fully compositional solutions are likely to fall flat: If a phrase or phrase is made up on the spot, it has no shot at doing that. You in all probability don’t have any specific affiliation with REBROIL or GREEN PAINT as a result of they simply don’t have lives of their very own. However a favourite dessert (MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE) or artist (TINA TURNER) or expertise (MACBOOK PRO) would possibly evoke an entire world of prior experiences. Once we encounter these phrases and phrases, we bear in mind their real-life context and even their emotional resonance.
This sense of place can add an additional layer of delight to phrases that may at first appear to not have any that means or associations past what you get by combining the phrases. Take the entry SO RANDOM from a 2022 Kameron Austin Collins New York Occasions puzzle. By itself, it means one thing like “particularly disordered.” However many solvers know that the phrase is deeply located in a zeitgeist. SO RANDOM evokes a picture of a Millennial, maybe paradoxically or self-effacingly describing their very own conduct, or maybe even talking within the voice of a personality from Clueless. These assumptions are additional supported by the clue: “Like … far and wide.” In the meantime, a solution reminiscent of ESPECIALLY DISORDERED would don’t have any probability of tapping into any sort of cultural context.
Lately, a brand new wave of constructors and editors have broadened the cultural context that crosswords draw on for his or her solutions. At present’s most beloved crosswords comprise fewer obscure European rivers than they do celebrities, allusions, and snatches of language from all walks of life. “The extra curatorial voices you’ve, the extra the world might be mirrored within the grid,” Natan Final, who constructs puzzles for The New Yorker, wrote to us. At present, these curatorial voices embrace Juliana Pache, whose Black Crossword has clued MENTO not because the onerous sweet however as “Jamaican folks music that later influenced ska and reggae,” and Nate Cardin and his colleagues, whose Queer Qrosswords typically emphasize LGBTQ themes. As an example, a 2019 puzzle by Claire Rimkus and Andrew Kingsley was constructed across the reply AUTOSTRADDLE, the title of a queer feminist on-line journal.
Crosswords reveal the intricate psychological processes concerned in not solely combining phrases into phrases, but in addition combining letters into phrases. Not like most of our expertise with written language, crossword solutions are written with out areas, as single entries in a dense, interconnected grid. Some nice crossword solutions take devilish benefit of that reality. Think about you’re fixing a puzzle and stumble throughout one in all these two six-letter, partially stuffed entries: XG____ or ____DJ. Any solver may moderately, upon seeing these weird letter combos, resolve that they will need to have gotten one of many crossing phrases improper—in any case, there aren’t any English phrases that begin with xg- or finish with -dj. However in these circumstances, the solutions XGAMES (“Sports activities occasion that notably declines to drug-test its members,” from a 2022 New York Occasions puzzle) and PBANDJ (“Lunchbox merchandise, for brief,” from 2003) each match neatly into the grid.
As a result of language processing occurs so mechanically, except you’re fixing a crossword, you may not ever discover that PBANDJ seems to be fairly bizarre when smashed collectively. Or, for that matter, that GREEN TEA isn’t simply tea that’s inexperienced. Maybe that’s a part of what makes crosswords so interesting: They supply a novel playground for our linguistic intuitions. Simply as filling in a single letter can abruptly make apparent a solution we had been struggling to recall, fixing crosswords can open up a brand new window into the information that’s already in our heads.
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