Siamese twins (linguistics)

Siamese twins (also irreversible binomials, binomials, binomial pairs, nonreversible word pairs, or freezes) in the context of the English language refer to a pair or group of words used together as an idiomatic expression or collocation, usually conjoined by the words and or or. The order of elements cannot be reversed. The expressions hammer and sickle (two nouns), short and sweet (two adjectives), and do or die (two verbs) are various examples of Siamese twins.

Contents

• Origin
• Conjunction
• Structure
• With numbers
• With repetition
• Legal terminology
• Variants
• References

Many Siamese twins are "catchy" (and thus clichés and catchphrases) due to alliteration, rhyming, or their ubiquity in society and culture. Word combinations like rock and roll, the birds and the bees, mix and match, and wear and tear have become so widely used that their meanings surpass the meaning of the constituent words and are thus inseparable and permanent parts of the English lexicon; the former two are idioms, whilst the latter two are collocations. Ubiquitous collocations like loud and clear and life or death are fixed expressions, making them a standard part of the vocabulary of native English speakers.

Some English words are known to have become obsolete in general but are still found exclusively in an irreversible binomial. In the passage of time since spick and span was coined, the origin and meaning of the word spick has been utterly forgotten; it has become a fossil word that never appears outside the familiar phrase. In other cases an English word (like vim in vim and vigor or abet in aid and abet) will be found more often in such phrases than on its own; such a word may be archaic apart from the collocation.

Certain Siamese twins are known for their use in legalese. Due to the use of precedent in common law, many lawyers use the same collocations found in documents centuries old. So rather than a person "enunciating" a "narrative" or recollecting about a situation, a legal brief will instead declare that a person deposes and says something pertinent. Likewise, a person who bequeaths property habitually writes of his heirs and successors and not some alternative construct.

While many Siamese twins are literal expressions (like washer and dryer, rest and relaxation, rich and famous, savings and loan), some are entirely figurative (like come hell or high water, nip and tuck, surf and turf) or mostly figurative (like between a rock and a hard place, five and dime). Others are somewhat in between these extremes because they are more subtle figures of speech, synecdoches, metaphors, or hyperboles (like cat and mouse, sick and tired, barefoot and pregnant, rags to riches).

A few Siamese twins have variations, based on the usage of the phrase. One time-worn expression is time and time again: it is frequently shortened to time and again. A person who is covered in tar and feathers (noun) usually gets that way by the action of a mob that tars and feathers (verb) undesirable people.

Similarly, some Siamese twins mean something different depending on the conjunction between the words. For example a give and take refers to two-way or mutual flexibility, whereas give or take means a numerical approximation. Another example: a person can do something whether it is right or wrong in contrast to knowing the difference between right and wrong; each word pair has a subtly different meaning.