"buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo" is a true grammatical phrase in American English, often presented as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to make intricate linguistic constructions through lexical ambiguity. It has been discussed in literature in various forms since 1967, when it appeared in Dmitri Borgmann Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought .
The sentence uses three different meanings of the word buffalo :
- as the proper noun to refer to a particular place named Buffalo, Buffalo, New York is the most famous;
- as a verb (not common in normal use) for buffalo , which means "bullying, harassing, or intimidating" or "refusing"; and
- as a noun to refer to animals, bison (often called buffalo in North America). It is also buffalo .
Easier to translate, although equivalent semantics, are: Buffalo from Buffalo, another buffalo from Buffalo bully buffalo from Buffalo.
Video Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Construct sentences
The sentence is not punctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In the order of their first use, these are:
- a. a town called Buffalo. This is used as additional supplementary words in the sentence;
- n. buffalo nouns (American bison), animals, in plural (equivalent to "buffalo" or "buffalo"), to avoid articles.
- v. the verb "buffalo" which means deceiving, confusing, cheating, intimidating, or confusing.
The sentence is synonymous with ambiguity; however, one possible parse (marking each "buffalo" with its talk as shown above) is as follows:
When grouped syntactically, this is equivalent to: [(Buffalonian bison) (Buffonian bison intimidate)] intimidate (Buffalonian bison).
The sentence uses a restrictive clause, so there is no coma, nor is there a "yang," as in, "Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo buffalo buffalo." This clause is also a relative clause that is subtracted, so the that word, which can appear between the second and third words, is omitted.
The extended form of the phrase that retains the original wording is: "Buffalo bison, that other bull bull, also bluffs buffalo bison."
Thus, the parsed phrase reads as a claim that bison being intimidated or bullied by bison is themselves bullying or bullying the bison (at least in Buffalo city - implicitly, Buffalo, New York) :
-
- Buffalo buffalo (a beast called "buffalo" from the city of Buffalo) [that] Buffalo buffalo (that animal from city buffalo) buffalo Buffalo buffalo (is bullying these animals from the city)./li>
- [They] buffalo (ice) from Buffalo [intimidated by] buffalo (es) from Buffalo intimidating Buffalo (ice) from Buffalo.
- Bison from Buffalo, New York, intimidated by other bisons in their community, also intimidates other bisons in their community.
- Buffalo of Buffalo which buffalo edited by buffalo of Buffalo, water buffalo (verb) other buffalo of Buffalo.
- Buffalo buffalo (main clause subject) [that] Buffalo buffalo (subordinate subordinate subject) buffalo (subordinate clause verb) buffalo (verb main clause) Buffalo buffalo (main object main clause).
- [Buffalo from Buffalo] buffalo [buffalo from Buffalo], also buffalo [buffalo from Buffalo].
Usage
Thomas Tymoczko has pointed out that there is nothing special about the eight "buffalo"; every sentence consisting only of the word "buffalo" is repeated several times in a grammatically correct manner. The shortest is "Buffalo!", Which can be regarded as verbal oral instruction to oppress someone ("[You] buffalo!") With the implied subject "you" removed, or as an exclamation noun, expressing for example. that a buffalo has been seen, or as an adjective call, for example as an answer to the question, "where did you come from?" Tymoczko uses sentences as examples that illustrate the rewriting rules in linguistics.
Maps Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Origin
The idea that one can compose a grammatically correct sentence composed of anything but a "buffalo" repetition was discovered independently several times in the 20th century. The earliest known written example, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", appears in the original manuscript for Dmitri Borgmann's 1965 Language on Vacation book, even though the chapter containing it was omitted from the published version. Borgmann recycled some of the material from this chapter, including the phrase "buffalo", in his 1967 book, Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought. In 1972, William J. Rapaport, now a professor at the University at Buffalo but later a graduate student at Indiana University, came up with a version containing five and ten samples of "buffalo". He then used both versions in his teaching, and in 1992 posted them to the LINGUIST List. A sentence with eight "buffalo" in a row is shown in Steven Younger's 1994 book The Language Instinct as an example of a seemingly "absurd" but grammatical sentence. Pinker named his student, Annie Senghas, as the inventor of the sentence.
Both Rapaport, Pinker, and Senghas were initially unaware of any previous coins. Pinker learned from the earlier example Rapaport only in 1994, and Rapaport was not informed of Borgmann's sentence until 2006. Even the Borgmann example may not be the oldest: computational linguist Robert C. Berwick, who used the five "buffalo" version of the 1987 book, he had heard the phrase as a child ("before 1972, to be sure") and had thought it was part of the common language.
Linguistic peculiarities can be constructed in other words that also serve as collective nouns, adjectives and verbs, some of which require no capitalization (such as "police").
In popular culture
- The parsed version of the phrase is the lyrics for the song "Buffalo" by Alt-J, from the soundtrack for the Silver Linings Playbook .
See also
- List of linguistic sample sentences
- Dark green idea sleeps angrily
- Eat, Shoot & amp; Leaves
- James while John has had a better influence on teachers
- The Lion-Eating Poet at Den Batu
- Polyptoton
- That it is that which is not is that it is
- Casual Semantics
- Neko no ko koneko, shishi no ko kojishi
References
External links
- Buffalo buffalo at Language Log , January 20, 2005
- Easdown, David. "Teaching mathematics: The gap between semantics (meaning) and syntax (form)" (PDF) . Ã, (273Ã, KB)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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