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

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The plural bit is key really - you need a noun that's spelled the same when pluralised, which is also a plausible adjective AND a plausible verb.

[koganbot]

By the way, I'd always thought that the verb "buffalo" meant to intimidate someone into going along with you, and my dictionary (1st edition of the American Heritage) gives "intimidate" as the verb's only meaning, designating the verb form as slang. But apparently "to baffle or bewilder" is even more common a meaning, though I'd never noticed it. The online Merriam Webster, having apparently been buffaloed into neglecting "intimidate," gives only "bewilder," "baffle," and "bamboozle." Dictionary.com, citing the Random House, gives "to puzzle or baffle; confuse; mystify: He was buffaloed by the problem," and "to impress or intimidate by a display of power, importance, etc.: The older boys buffaloed him." The online American Heritage gives "1. To intimidate, as by a display of confidence or authority: 'The board couldn't buffalo the federal courts as it had the Comptroller' (American Banker). 2. To deceive; hoodwink: 'Too often... job seekers have buffaloed lenders as to their competency and training' (H. Jane Lehman). 3. To confuse; bewilder."

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

what's the "and" sentence? i'm sure it's about putting more space on the pub sign between bull and and and and and gate but that's only five. unless you imagine a pub called the bull and and gate in which case you could have more space between bull and and and and and and and and and gate, but i think that's cheating...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think you should action this ddd.

What's the difference between a Buffalo buffalo and a Basin basin?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

^World's newest oldest joke!

[koganbot]

Except that "buffalo" is a more vivid and forceful way of saying "intimidate," given that you envision a massive buffalo doing the buffaloing, whereas "to access" something has no real advantage in nuance over "to get access" to something - though someone could argue that "to access" does have a nuance, which is that it associates the user with corporate culture and said culture's use of brisk, breezy, but otherwise unnecessary terms that give a spurious air of efficiency. "Contact" in the sense of "communicate with" had this connotation when it was first made into a verb, though its use as a verb is now so common across the population as to suppress this connotation. "Impact" as a verb still has the connotation, and makes me grit my teeth. Of course, this is class snobbery on my part.

u&k

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

"access" is two words shorter than "get access to"

my guess: subs fashioning crunchy tabloid headlines ("hedding crunchily") cause most verbing

Re: u&k

[koganbot]

You're right that it is shorter. Actually, the problem with "access" as a verb is that it is used not to mean "get access to" but simply as a synonym for "get" or "link" or "download," the first being shorter still and already in common usage, and the latter being more specific. So the verb "access" has an air of efficiency while actually being longer or vaguer than the alternatives. However, I've read arguments that defend the verb "contact" precisely for its vagueness - that is, if you don't know whether you're going to phone or mail or email or meet someone, "contact" covers them all. I've defended "influence" for its vagueness (though your particular objection to the term isn't merely to its vagueness but to its use as a validation, e.g., the attempt to vaguely validate some performer by claiming the performer had an influence on or was influenced by the Velvet Underground). Deliberately using vague words when the specifics are known can be a useful comic device; e.g., when Ingrid and James sent the invitation for their son's bar mitvah, including the specification "black tie optional," it was remarked that the word "optional" was the influence of James.

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

I like the sentence "I borrowed my sister's FM radio" because you can insert "only" anywhere in it, with a wide range of meanings.

Re: u&k

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

better synonym than "access" for "get access to" = "gut"

(not exact as it implies a. what you've accessed you've taken, and b. its container will never again contain)

Re: u&k

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

But "access" isn't a synonym for any of those things -- if I "get" or "download" something, I transfer it from one location (remote) to another (local), and if I "link" to a location I am connected but that does not guarantee the ability to do anything with that connection. "Access" is somewhere in between those two things -- a link with the potential to get/download/perform some other action. (Although then there are phrases like "I accessed the file," where just by viewing it you are technically downloading it to your own computer, but not in the traditional "saved a copy to my desktop" sense.)

verbing

[(Anonymous)]

While Nan has long maintained (faceitously) that "all nouns can be verbed," I now learn that "to verb" (as she uses it) is more likely to enter the langauge as "to nerb: the act of using a noun as a verb." [RK]

Re: verbing

[koganbot]

Seems kinda nerby.

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