Binomials

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States Marine Corps.  Having worn the uniform I’m sure many of my friends, readers and fellow Marines expected an ode to the Corps of some kind.  But seeing that our nation’s 250th birthday is just eight months away, I thought I’d leave the encomiums to those who will do a much better job than me, beginning with Donald Trump, the President of the United States and General Eric M. Smith the Commandant of the Marine Corps.

Instead, I thought I’d look at the lighter side of life and again examine parts of the world’s most fascinating language, English, so let’s begin.   Do or Die, Give and Take, Heads or Tails, Life and Death, Make or Break – have you ever wondered why we use certain pairings of words in a specific order and not the other way around?

Many word pairs (irreversible binomials) have a fixed order for a variety of reasons including history, rhythm and phonetics.  Though not all common word pairings have a fixed order, many do, and in most cases the order is irreversible—at least without making them sound flat out weird, I mean how strange do, Order and Law, Balances and Checks or Eggs and Ham sound?

From “Salt & Pepper” to “Thunder & Lightning,” there are reasons why some words always take the lead.  For example, “To and Fro,” the phrase itself has been in English since at least the 14th century.  “Fro” being an old word (from Old Norse frá, meaning “away” or “from”) that largely fell out of use except in this set phrase.  But by the time “fro” was fading from common speech, “To and Fro” had already become fixed in everyday usage, so the order stuck.

The English language tends to favor word pairings that “sound right” due to stress patterns and in this case, “to and fro” has a natural iambic rhythm (short → long → short), which is pleasing to the ear.  “Fro and to” is just awkward and doesn’t flow as smoothly.   Similar to “back and forth” (not forth and back), “here and there” (not there and here) or “ups and downs” (not downs and ups) some pairs just don’t work when reversed.  Of course there’s the cognitive aspect to the matter as well, i.e., a directional sense: “to” feels like movement toward something, and “fro” feels like movement away.  English tends to list the approach before the retreat, reinforcing “to” before “fro.”

English also has a time and sequence factor, “sooner or later” (not later or sooner), “wear and tear” (not tear and wear,) “again and again” (not again and over), “song and dance” not dance and song.

We also find contrasts in the phrases, “pros and cons” (not cons and pros), “odds and ends” (not ends and odds), “black and white” (not white and black,) and “cause and effect” (not effect and cause) unless discussing of a technical nature.

Meanwhile in everyday speech we have, “peace and quiet” (not quiet and peace), “law and order” (not order and law), “bread and butter” (not butter and bread), “meat and potatoes”  (not potatoes and meat) “peanut butter & jelly,” (not jelly and peanut butter) and of course from across the Atlantic, “fish and chips” (chips and fish just sounds wrong) and we don’t go into a McDonald’s and order “fries and a burger.”

So, here’s a legend of sorts and a rationale as to why a certain orders of words persist, not to mention that sometimes reversing them is simply jarring to the ear.

• Phonetics — shorter first, longer second (Salt and Pepper).
• Historical usage — first recorded order fossilized (Now and Then.)
• Logic / natural sequence — (Cause and Effect., Trial and Error)
• Urgent conditions before milder ones ( Sick and Tired.)
• Rhythm & memorability (Peace & Prosperity )
• Moral sequencing , i.e., values before outcomes, (Good and Evil)
• Cultural convention — once a phrase catches on, it stays fixed.

As noted in the foregoing, word pairs have their order for a reason—flip them around and they can go from “catchy to clunky,” in no time flat.