Though nobody ever taught it to you, odds are that in the event you clear up lots of crossword puzzles, you’re fluent within the grammar of crosswords. Most crossword fanatics might 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 explicit to have a reputation.
These unstated tenets will be deceptively complicated. Think about how GALORE could possibly be clued by “aplenty,” however not by “many.” It’s because, though 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 kind what linguists name a syntactic constituent—a gaggle of phrases that capabilities collectively as an entire unit, the way in which 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 normally. 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 robust intuitions about what entries are attainable and the way they are often clued. These intuitions assist what makes a great reply, akin to OPRAH (“Founding father of Harpo Productions,” in a 2019 New York Instances 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 principles is figuring out what makes a unhealthy reply, like SUPERB PAN (“Wonderful 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 velocity solver recognized for his absurdist “Cuckoo Crosswords.” Payne’s Cuckoo Crosswords are (intentionally) crammed with entries so comically weird that solvers will agree that they haven’t 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 fundamental precepts of the English language, the cuckoo entries in Cuckoo Crosswords are flouting a extra refined, if no much less elementary, rule in crosswords. In each circumstances, crossword solvers have discovered by expertise what makes a given entry acceptable or cuckoo, and likewise what makes some entries actually nice. Though these guidelines are explicit to crosswords, they depend on extra basic linguistic intuitions—hard-earned information about language that’s in your mind even though you’ve seemingly by no means consciously considered it.
Cuckoo solutions akin to 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 consultants argue that green-paint entries irk solvers as a result of they’re too uncommon in bizarre language. However you wouldn’t assume twice in the event you encountered order a rye (“Hello there, I’d prefer to order a rye”) in every day life—the truth is, relying in your pursuits, you’re way more prone to hear it than a superbly acceptable entry akin to APSE. The true cause ORDER A RYE is banned from mainstream crossword society has to do with a characteristic of all human language known as “compositionality”: the power to mix smaller items of which means into bigger ones with predictable meanings. Compositionality is what allows you to perceive multi-word phrases—inexperienced paint is paint that’s inexperienced—and sentences you have got by no means heard earlier than, akin to “Girl 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 are purely compositional are typically disappointing. A solution like GREEN PAINT is unsatisfying as a result of there’s not a lot to it in addition to the which means you get by fusing the 2 phrases collectively. Good multi-word solutions, in contrast, are one way or the other greater than the sum of their elements. Examine GREEN PAINT with GREEN DAY (clued in a 1996 New York Instances 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 is no such thing as a strategy to get the which means of the entire simply by composing the elements.
Not like the crossword, compositionality isn’t black-and-white: Phrases will be absolutely compositional, solely non-compositional, and every part in between. Think about GREEN TEA (“Sushi bar cupful,” per a 2003 New York Instances puzzle). It’s tea, and it’s inexperienced (sort of). However figuring out these two information doesn’t let you know every part there may be to find out 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 akin to REBROIL (re plus broil, presumably which means one thing like “broil once more”) are extra seemingly to attract solvers’ ire than phrases like RETURN. Though return is, like rebroil, composed of items (re and flip), its which means isn’t so clearly decided by the which means of these items alone: Returning is not only the act of turning once more.
For a crossword reply to actually excel, it ought to, like Proust’s madeleine, evoke a specific time or place or milieu. That’s why utterly 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 haven’t any explicit affiliation with REBROIL or GREEN PAINT as a result of they only don’t have lives of their very own. However a favourite dessert (MOLTEN CHOCOLATE CAKE) or artist (TINA TURNER) or know-how (MACBOOK PRO) would possibly evoke an entire world of prior experiences. After 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 which may at first appear to not have any which means or associations past what you get by combining the phrases. Take the entry SO RANDOM from a 2022 Kameron Austin Collins New York Instances 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 mockingly or self-effacingly describing their very own habits, 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 akin to ESPECIALLY DISORDERED would haven’t 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. Right now’s most beloved crosswords include fewer obscure European rivers than they do celebrities, allusions, and snatches of language from all walks of life. “The extra curatorial voices you have got, the extra the world will probably be mirrored within the grid,” Natan Final, who constructs puzzles for The New Yorker, wrote to us. Right now, 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 usually emphasize LGBTQ themes. As an example, a 2019 puzzle by Claire Rimkus and Andrew Kingsley was constructed across the reply AUTOSTRADDLE, the identify 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 truth. Think about you’re fixing a puzzle and stumble throughout considered one of these two six-letter, partially crammed entries: XG____ or ____DJ. Any solver might moderately, upon seeing these weird letter mixtures, determine that they should have gotten one of many crossing phrases fallacious—in spite of everything, 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 contributors,” from a 2022 New York Instances puzzle) and PBANDJ (“Lunchbox merchandise, for brief,” from 2003) each match neatly into the grid.
As a result of language processing occurs so routinely, except you’re fixing a crossword, you won’t ever discover that PBANDJ seems 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 all of the sudden 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.
