Trick or Treat

[Mark A Mandel]

On Thu, 3 Jul 2003, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

#Larry sez:
#
#What's especially odd here is the order, which if memory serves is
#attributed by Cooper & Ross ("World Order", 1975) to a priority of
#the phonology over the semantics.  The problem with the latter is
#that it suggests "If I don't perform some mischief on you, you will
#give me (have given me?) a treat", when of course the idea is the
#other way around--so "Treat or trick" would make more sense.
#
#He remembers right.
#
#For folks who don't remember this article, it maintains that listed
#or paired items in "freezes" or "fixed expressions" are ordered
#'short' to 'long' and that this ordering applies to syllable weight
#as well as number of syllables. 'Tall, dark, and handsome' has
#'handsome' last since it's two syllables but 'dark' after 'tall'
#since it's 4 phonemes long and 'tall' is only three. It applies to
#'trick or treat,' since 'treat' has a long vowel and 'trick' a short
#one.


I won't argue with that, but ISTM there's another factor reinforcing it.
This is just an introspective observation w/o research, thrown in here
for what anyone may make of it:

"*treat or trick" has three coronals in a row with /r/s interspersed, a
classic sort of tongue-twister setup. "trick or treat" switches the
point of articulation from coronal to velar and back, sparing the
speaker the need of rapid adjustment of the front of the tongue.

-- Mark A. Mandel