North vs. South, Black and White, Cream and Sugar, Heads or Tails
Structure. Format. Ordering. Why do these things matter? I think it boils down to the fact that humans generally like the comfort that regularity offers.
* Breaking tradition (smashing, violent!)
* Thinking outside the box (outside, cold, alone!)
* Breaking taboos; breaking free (smashing, violent!)
* Walking outside the lines (risky!)
* Changing paradigms (strange word; obsfucation!)
* Play by the rules (veiled threat, warning!)
Any time you do something new, there is risk. Any time you are different, there is risk. Any time you throw off the blanket of regularity life is less comfortable. It might be more exciting, but it is usually less comfortable.
This, my friend, is why risk is rewarded. Most people are afraid of change. They are afraid of risk. But, since change is difficult, it can pay off.
But there is more to the story. There is something subtle going on that I can’t quite explain. I’ve noticed that some things go together but they only go together in a certain order. I can’t seem to figure out why the order is the order, but it is there. Definitely. I’m sure you’ve seen these before:
* North vs. South
* Black and White
* Cream and Sugar
* Heads or Tails
* Bread and Butter
These “pairs” just look right. The order is correct. However, read the entries below:
* South vs. North
* White and Black
* Sugar and Cream
* Tails or Heads
* Butter and Bread
Admit it. These don’t feel right, do they. The words are fine but the normal order of the pairings are odd. They are wrong.
Why?
p.s. Sorry that I’ve not posted much recently. Very busy. Chicago, Washington, Montgomery (Alabama). Not sure when things will slow down.
April 15th, 2005 at 4:17 am
Aside from words with a clear order (”first and second”) I suspect if you ask people to order any two unrelated words, or even two made-up words, trends will often emerge that are greater than the expected deviation of a coin flip.
Maybe new word orders are influenced by the “ghosts” of nearby words and their meanings and relationships? Or maybe you can break it down to the individual syllables, like hard sounds in the beginning and soft sounds at the end?
Hmmm… Sven & Larry -or- Larry & Sven… :-)
-Sean
April 15th, 2005 at 4:41 am
As you stated, “Structure. Format. Ordering.”
The reason they work in the way we are accustomed to them is that they are alphabetical. In every instance - including the Bread and Butter example, the words are in sequential order as they appear in the alphabet. Our brains are always trying to organize information in ways that make sense to us. We learn the correct order of things that use letters at a very early age. It only stands to reason that we are going to organize letters in that same order.
April 15th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
I suspect that phrases where one word is monosyllabic and the other has two syllables, like “Cream and Sugar” or “Bread and Butter,” have to do with meter, at least where both words are equally important. I don’t know how best to mark this up in text, but I’ll try:
Cream and Sugar sounds like this:
DAH da DAH da
Sugar and Cream sounds like this:
DAH da da DAH
The first feels more natural to say.
Then there’s emphasis. “Coffee and cream” violates the meter, but places the emphasis on the more important item: the coffee. “Bread and butter” fits this pattern also. Similarly, with “Heads or tails,” there’s a sense that things start at the head and move toward the tail.
I’m not sure how to explain “black and white” or “North vs. South,” though. Something else must have fixed those in order.
April 15th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Hmm, you may have something there. Ben & Jerry’s vs. Bartles & James.
April 15th, 2005 at 7:18 pm
Up and down - there goes the alphabetical theory, although it is for the most part remarkable in its consistency. Another theory - Steven Pinker, in “The Language Instinct”, says that the order is always highest-frontest vowel (in the vowel space) first and lowest-backest vowel second, wrt the first vowel in each word. I’ve never verified this.
Paddy
April 17th, 2005 at 5:54 pm
Pinker rocks. I’ve read several of his research papers, and a book. However, I did not read “The Language Instinct”. I’ll have to pick it up.
Speaking of books, Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” is great. I’m reading a few others. More on those in a few weeks.
- John
April 18th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
Talking of books that are not usability/design books but that are relevant to what we do, I’ve just started “Mind Hacks” by Tom Stafford and Matt Web. It looks promising.
Paddy