Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

[koganbot]

In his blog, Paul Krugman links to William Rapaport's search for the various sources of grammatical, intelligible (if you already know what the person is trying to say) sentences made entirely of the word "buffalo." Rapaport created this one in 1972:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

It works along the lines of:

"Mice cats chase eat cheese"; i.e., Mice THAT cats chase eat cheese.

In Rapaport's version, "Buffalo" when capitalized means the city in western New York State, "buffalo" can mean either the noun "bison" or the verb "to buffalo" (which is a transitive verb meaning either "to intimidate" or "to baffle and bewilder"), and "to Buffalo buffalo" some creature is to buffalo that creature in a way that's unique to Buffalo buffaloes. (According to Rapaport there are bison in the Buffalo zoo.) "Buffalo" (meaning bison) in the plural can be spelled "buffalo," "buffalos," or "buffaloes."

So, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Meaning: buffalo from Buffalo that are Buffalo buffaloed by Buffalo buffalo, in turn Buffalo buffalo other Buffalo buffalo.

Comments

Re: verbing

[(Anonymous)]

All those who have not read the book "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" should do so. It explains why Pandas carry rifles; actually, it is an amazing book about punctuation -- written by a Brit, naturally. (BE)

Re: verbing

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

haha i own ES&L but haven't read it yet -- cz i suspect i will DISAGREE MADLY with it and plan my own MUCH MORE KORREKT BOOK