Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

[U are a noob]

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs. It has been discussed in literature since 1972 when the sentence was used by William J. Rapaport, currently an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.[1] It was posted to Linguist List by Rapaport in 1992.[2] It was also featured in Steven Pinker's 1994 book The Language Instinct. Sentences of this type, although not in such a refined form, have been known for a long time. A classic example is the proverb "Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

 

[MeRcChRiS]

Ok....So?

Besides seeing that I will never need to use this. Seems weird.

 

[Wiseman_2]

Oh wow. I'm going to see if my English teacher knows as much as she should

 

[Arcane]

Whoa, that's awesome!
I was wondering what the thread title meant...

 

[tom_mai78101]

Buffalo, are you buffaloing me as a Buffalo buffaloing buffalo buffalo of the Buffalo buffalo?

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Hard to make it out?

The first one is a name.

The second one is a verb, meant to bullying a person.

The third one is a pronoun.

The fourth one is a verb.

The fifth one is a adjective, that is, the buffalo itself is described as a bully.

The sixth one is a noun, which is an animal.

The seventh one is a pronoun.

The eighth one is again, an animal.

The last two meant a species in Buffalo town.

That's a good sentence for a change, as it not only matches the title (by looking at the caps), but also makes a point right there. The only difference is that the title doesn't use [Verb+{ing}]

 

[Varine]

I always thought people knew about this until I wrote it in a bathroom stall, then when I came back to check to see if someone else wrote back it said: Buffalo-write is a fag. Then I awoke to realize that my skills with English are just so amazing that I just surpass the majority of the world.

 

[tom_mai78101]

That's either called your imagination or you're saying it impossible.

 

[Arcane]

It has nothing to do with English skills really. It just a gimmick, either you've heard of it or you haven't.

 

[tom_mai78101]

This information is for lunguistics only. Did I spell it right?

 

[Flare]

linguistics i believe.

and this has to be one of the most useless, but interesting pieces of information ive ever seen (could i make an essay just by using the word buffalo?)

 

[Rad]

Then I awoke to realize that my skills with English are just so amazing that I just surpass the majority of the world.

Or you realized they didn't read it on Wikipedia before you did.

Preserving the meaning more closely, substituting the synonym "bison" for "buffalo" (animal), "bully" for "buffalo" (verb) and leaving "Buffalo" to mean the city, yields

'Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison'

"bully bully" does not seem correct to me. They excuse it in the next example by adding a pronoun:
'Buffalo bison whom other Buffalo bison bully themselves bully Buffalo bison'

So wouldn't that mean "buffalo buffalo" should be "buffalo themselves buffalo" to be correct?

 

[SilverHawk]

If it's confusing, just take out words 3 to 5, then add them back in as a modifier of the first two.

 

[Varine]

Or you realized they didn't read it on Wikipedia before you did.

Before I moved to the US I had a teacher that told us how English is a terrible language because it lacks rules and standards and he used that as one of the examples for some reason. Stupid homophones.... Besides, we all know English has rules, but they only apply to the words that follow it.

 

[tom_mai78101]

"bully bully" does not seem correct to me. They excuse it in the next example by adding a pronoun:
'Buffalo bison whom other Buffalo bison bully themselves bully Buffalo bison'

So wouldn't that mean "buffalo buffalo" should be "buffalo themselves buffalo" to be correct?

About the "bully bully" fragment, the first one is a verb, or possibly an adjective, the second one is a noun.

Cool, huh? You could scramble up the entire sentence structure, and then make them up so that there's about 8!/8 of different structures. (Supposing you had learned about the "!", like P, C, H, etc. in math)