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| "'''Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'''" is a ] ] in the ], used as an example of how ]s and ]s can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by ], an associate professor at the ].<ref>Rapaport, William J. 22 September 2006. "". Accessed 23 September 2006. ()</ref> It was posted to ] by Rapaport in 1992.<ref name="Linguistlist">Rapaport, William J. 19 February 1992. "". Accessed 14 September 2006.</ref> It was also featured in ]'s 1994 book '']''.<ref>Pinker, Steven. ''The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language</i>. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1994. p. 210</ref> | "'''Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'''" is a ] ] in the ], used as an example of how ]s and ]s can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by ], an associate professor at the ].<ref>Rapaport, William J. 22 September 2006. "". Accessed 23 September 2006. ()</ref> It was posted to ] by Rapaport in 1992.<ref name="Linguistlist">Rapaport, William J. 19 February 1992. "". Accessed 14 September 2006.</ref> It was also featured in ]'s 1994 book '']''.<ref>Pinker, Steven. ''The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language</i>. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1994. p. 210</ref> | ||
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| ==Sentence construction== | |||
| ]]] | |||
| ], commonly called a "buffalo"]] | |||
| ], ]]] | |||
| ] | |||
| 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 ], ], which is used as a ] in the sentence and is followed by the animal; | |||
| * '''n.''' the ] ], an animal, in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes" or "buffalos"), in order to avoid ]s; | |||
| * '''v.''' the ] "]" meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate. | |||
| Marking each "buffalo" with its use as shown above gives: | |||
| :Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup>. | |||
| Thus, the sentence when ] reads as a claim that bison who ''are intimidated or bullied by bison'' are themselves ''intimidating or bullying to bison'' (at least in the city of Buffalo -- implicitly, Buffalo, NY): | |||
| :* (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 (] subject) buffalo (subordinate clause verb) buffalo (] verb) Buffalo buffalo (main clause direct object). | |||
| The sentence can be clarified by substituting the synonym "bison" for the animal "buffalo", "bully" for the verb "buffalo", and "New York" to refer to the state of the city Buffalo: | |||
| :"New York bison New York bison bully bully New York bison", or: | |||
| :"New York bison whom other New York bison bully, themselves bully New York 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." | |||
| ===Translation (first order logic)=== | |||
| Given domain = the set of all buffalo (animal), FB(x) = 'x is from Buffalo (place)' and B(x, y) = 'x buffalos (verb) y', the sentence can be translated into first order logic as follows: | |||
| <math>\forall x (\exists y (FB(x) \wedge FB(y) \wedge B(y, x)) \to \exists z (FB(z) \wedge B(x, z)))</math> | |||
| ===Ambiguity=== | |||
| If the capitalization is ignored, the sentence can be read another way: | |||
| :Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup>. | |||
| That is, bison from Buffalo intimidate (other) bison from Buffalo that bison from Buffalo intimidate. | |||
| One may use this new construction to add three more instances of the word, yielding:{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} | |||
| :Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> Buffalo<sup>a</sup> buffalo<sup>n</sup> buffalo<sup>v</sup>. | |||
| That is, bison from Buffalo bison from Buffalo intimidate intimidate bison from Buffalo bison from Buffalo intimidate. | |||
| Or: | |||
| :"Buffalo bison whom other Buffalo bison bully, themselves bully Buffalo bison whom other Buffalo bison bully." | |||
| ===Usage=== | |||
| There is nothing special about eight "buffalos"; indeed, a sentence with "buffalo" repeated any number of times is grammatically correct (according to ] theories of grammar). The shortest is "Buffalo!", meaning either "Bully (someone)!", or "Look, there are buffalo here!", or "Behold, it is the majestic and grand city of Buffalo!"<ref>{{Cite book | year=2000 | title = Sweet reason: a field guide to modern logic | author1=Thomas Tymoczko | author2=James M. Henle | edition=2 | publisher=Birkhäuser | isbn=9780387989303 | pages=99–100 | url=http://books.google.com/?id=LQnsSuvP9dAC&pg=PA99 | postscript=<!--None-->}}</ref> | |||
| ==Other words== | ==Other words== | ||
Revision as of 19:32, 18 September 2011
PN = proper noun
N = noun
V = verb
NP = noun phrase
RC = relative clause
VP = verb phrase
S = sentence
"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.
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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, can, 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
Notes
- Rapaport, William J. 22 September 2006. "A History of the Sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo."". Accessed 23 September 2006. (archived copy)
- Rapaport, William J. 19 February 1992. "Message 1: Re: 3.154 Parsing Challenges". Accessed 14 September 2006.
- Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1994. p. 210
External links
Listen to this article(2 parts, 5 minutes)
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- "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