I haven’t come across many of those (none to be precise) so I am going to redress the balance, though perhaps not here and not just yet. The way I see it is they are long overdue.
We are given to understand that crossword puzzles are a good way to exercise our brain. Likewise, I haven’t heard that wisdom questioned very often. Personally, I find them uninspiring. I wonder if this is because the majority require that the answers be nouns, or at least something akin to nouns.
Where the answers are not nouns, as in full sentences, expressions or verbs indeed, the clues are formulated in terms of a definition or, most often, a paraphrase. Definitions is something that works best with nouns. So nouns cast a long shadow one way or another. Verbs defy definitions – they demand examples of usage.
Conventional crossword puzzles are an amusement best suited to speakers whose first language is the same as the language of the clues. Perhaps you get a kick out of guessing that ‘Polly and Esther’ make ‘polyester’ if you are doing the Daily Telegraph crossword over breakfast in Tunbridge Wells, but from a language learner’s point of view, the educational benefit of this sort of nonsense is zero.
Verbs suffer a bad image, too. The speech of educated classes is full of nouns. The hoi polloi and the lumpen proletariat bark out verbs. Well, I am of the latter stock and proud of it. Layers of education will not smother me’ verbs.
The problem with verbs is that they are polymorphic (where did I pick it up?). As well as tenses, we have to contend with the transitive v intransitive distinction, perfective v imperfective aspect, simple v compound, stative v dynamic, main v auxiliary, and so on.
But I don’t think crossverb puzzles are a lost cause. The ways of setting up the grid are explained in many places on the internet – I am concerned with the content. To start off, I propose a verb spelt downwards in the centre. Let it be: CHUCKED. This will act as an anchor and indicate the tense of all other verbs in the puzzle. The clues have blanks where the verbs would be. The clues confound the most common collocations but do not stray beyond the ordinary. Thus, “The cat _ _ _ _ _ _ the mouse once more,” where perhaps the last cell in the clued verb is crossed with the last letter of the verb given (here: D). Hence, the answer is not ‘caught’ but, for example, ‘tossed’.
A moment’s reflection suggests that there are many ways of setting crossverb puzzles. Why is no one doing it?
We are given to understand that crossword puzzles are a good way to exercise our brain. Likewise, I haven’t heard that wisdom questioned very often. Personally, I find them uninspiring. I wonder if this is because the majority require that the answers be nouns, or at least something akin to nouns.
Where the answers are not nouns, as in full sentences, expressions or verbs indeed, the clues are formulated in terms of a definition or, most often, a paraphrase. Definitions is something that works best with nouns. So nouns cast a long shadow one way or another. Verbs defy definitions – they demand examples of usage.
Conventional crossword puzzles are an amusement best suited to speakers whose first language is the same as the language of the clues. Perhaps you get a kick out of guessing that ‘Polly and Esther’ make ‘polyester’ if you are doing the Daily Telegraph crossword over breakfast in Tunbridge Wells, but from a language learner’s point of view, the educational benefit of this sort of nonsense is zero.
Verbs suffer a bad image, too. The speech of educated classes is full of nouns. The hoi polloi and the lumpen proletariat bark out verbs. Well, I am of the latter stock and proud of it. Layers of education will not smother me’ verbs.
The problem with verbs is that they are polymorphic (where did I pick it up?). As well as tenses, we have to contend with the transitive v intransitive distinction, perfective v imperfective aspect, simple v compound, stative v dynamic, main v auxiliary, and so on.
But I don’t think crossverb puzzles are a lost cause. The ways of setting up the grid are explained in many places on the internet – I am concerned with the content. To start off, I propose a verb spelt downwards in the centre. Let it be: CHUCKED. This will act as an anchor and indicate the tense of all other verbs in the puzzle. The clues have blanks where the verbs would be. The clues confound the most common collocations but do not stray beyond the ordinary. Thus, “The cat _ _ _ _ _ _ the mouse once more,” where perhaps the last cell in the clued verb is crossed with the last letter of the verb given (here: D). Hence, the answer is not ‘caught’ but, for example, ‘tossed’.
A moment’s reflection suggests that there are many ways of setting crossverb puzzles. Why is no one doing it?
No comments:
Post a Comment