Is this phrase or clause a clause?

Question

Is "lefty loosey, righty tighty" a clause?

Or what is "lefty loosey, righty tighty"?

Or what part of speech is "lefty loosey, righty tighty"?

Or what part of speech is each word in "lefty loosey, righty tighty"?

Why did someone vote this question down or show that this question is bad?

If it's "bad", can you show why you vote it down or why it is "bad" instead of just voting it down?

Answer 1

One explanation is all of the words in the mnemonic are adjectives, then this would be adjective phrases and certainly not a clause.

But my first instinct was to interpret this as the following:

• The words "lefty" and "righty" are diminutive nouns;
• The words "loosey" and "tighty" are adjectives;
• Since English usually tends to have an Adjective-Noun order, these are probably not just noun phrases;
• These could be two clauses, with zero copula/linking verb... which is not super usual for Standard English, but could still be permissible: lefty (is) loosey, righty (is) tighty.

This is my analysis of this, but it's the first time I see this mnemonic.