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"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo. It was posted to Linguist List by Rapaport in 1992. It was also featured in Steven Pinker's 1994 book The Language Instinct.

Sentence construction

The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are

• a. the city of Buffalo, South Dakota, which is used as a noun adjunct in the sentence and is followed by the animal;
• n. the noun buffalo, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes" or "buffalos"), in order to avoid articles;
• v. the verb "buffalo" meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.

Marking each "buffalo" with its use as shown above gives:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Thus, the sentence when parsed reads as a description of the pecking order in the social hierarchy of buffaloes living in Buffalo:

• (Buffalo buffalo) (Buffalo buffalo) buffalo, buffalo (Buffalo buffalo).
• buffalo(es) from Buffalo buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo.
• Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.
• THE buffalo FROM Buffalo WHO ARE buffaloed BY buffalo FROM Buffalo, buffalo (verb) OTHER buffalo FROM Buffalo.

"Buffalo buffalo (main clause subject) Buffalo buffalo (subordinate clause direct object) buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo ."

The sentence can be clarified by substituting the synonym "bison" for the animal "buffalo" and "bully" for the verb "buffalo", leaving "Buffalo" to refer to the city:

"Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison", or:

"Buffalo bison whom other Buffalo bison bully, themselves bully Buffalo bison".

Removing the classifier noun "Buffalo" (the city) further clarifies the sentence (note that the initial capital is retained as the common noun "buffalo" now starts the sentence):

"Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo."

"Bison bison bully bully bison."

Ambiguity

If the capitalization is ignored, the sentence can be read another way:

Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

That is, bison from Buffalo intimidate (other) bison from Buffalo that bison from Buffalo intimidate.

Usage

There is nothing special about eight "buffalo"s; indeed, a sentence with "buffalo" repeated any number of times is grammatically correct (according to Chomskyan theories of grammar). The shortest is 'Buffalo!', meaning either 'Bully (someone)!', or 'Look, there are buffalo here!', or 'Behold, it is the city of Buffalo!'.

Other words

Other English words can be used to make grammatical (but not necessarily meaningful) sentences of this form, containing endless consecutive repetitions. Any word that is both an animate plural noun and a transitive verb will work. Other words which can be used in this manner include police, fish, smelt, char, people and bream.

A somewhat similar un-punctuated example is "James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher". This could concern a situation in an English class regarding the usage of the word had, and might be punctuated as, "James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had a better effect on the teacher."

See also

• List of linguistic example sentences
  • James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
  • That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is
  • Malo malo malo malo
  • Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
  • Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
• Semantic satiation
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Notes

1. Rapaport, William J. 22 September 2006. "A History of the Sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."". Accessed 23 September 2006. (archived copy)
2. Rapaport, William J. 19 February 1992. "Message 1: Re: 3.154 Parsing Challenges". Accessed 14 September 2006.
3. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1994. p. 210
4. Thomas Tymoczko; James M. Henle (2000). Sweet reason: a field guide to modern logic (2 ed.). Birkhäuser. pp. 99–100. ISBN 9780387989303.

External links

2. Part 2

• "Buffaloing buffalo" at Language Log, 20 January 2005
• Easdown, David. Template:PDF
• The Emory Wheel, Andrew Swerlick What a Herd of Confused Bison from Upstate New York Can Teach Us About Our Difficulties With the English Language

Video clip

• Explanation of the concept on YouTube

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• Grammar
• Language games