Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo


	Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

patchworkthreads

6-23-2007 11:12 AM

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tags:

language, wordplay, linguistics

patchworkthreads says:

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/eb414fa1-d191-4519-a423-6fd07eb0e012/D41D96C2-AED6-4514-B1CB-0D7C3C2C8D63/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359" style="font-size: 11px;">en.wikipedia.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359">"<B>Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo</B>" is a <A title="Grammar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar">grammatically correct</A> <A title="Sentence (linguistics)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_%28linguistics%29">sentence</A> used as an example of how <A title="Homonym" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym">homonyms</A> and <A title="Homophone" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone">homophones</A> can be used to create complicated constructs. It has been known to exist since <A title="1972" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972">1972</A> when the sentence was used by <A title="William J. Rapaport" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Rapaport">William J. Rapaport</A>, currently an associate professor at the <A title="University at Buffalo, The State University of New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_at_Buffalo%2C_The_State_University_of_New_York">University at Buffalo</A>.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359"><P>The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are</p> <UL>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;"><B>c.</B> The city of <A title="Buffalo, New York" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo%2C_New_York">Buffalo, New York</A>;</LI>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;"><B>a.</B> The animal "<A title="Bison" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison">buffalo</A>", in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes"), in order to avoid <A title="Article (grammar)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_%28grammar%29">articles</A>;</LI>
<li style="margin-left:16px;padding-left: 0px;"><B>v.</B> The verb "<A title="wiktionary:buffalo" class="extiw" href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buffalo#Transitive_verb">buffalo</A>" meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.</LI>
</UL>
<P>Marking each "buffalo" with its use as shown above gives</p> <DL>
<DD>Buffalo<SUP>c</SUP> buffalo<SUP>a</SUP> Buffalo<SUP>c</SUP> buffalo<SUP>a</SUP> buffalo<SUP>v</SUP> buffalo<SUP>v</SUP> Buffalo<SUP>c</SUP> buffalo<SUP>a</SUP>.</DD></DL></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359">Thus, the sentence when <A title="Parsing" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing">parsed</A> reads</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo&oldid=140032359">Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D41D96C2-AED6-4514-B1CB-0D7C3C2C8D63/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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