356:
33:
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89:
893:
384:
instruction to bully someone (" buffalo!") with the implied subject "you" removed, or, as a noun exclamation, expressing e.g. that a buffalo has been sighted, or as an adjectival exclamation, e.g. as a response to the question, "where are you from?" Tymoczko uses the sentence as an example
364:
494:
379:
has pointed out that there is nothing special about eight "buffalos"; any sentence consisting solely of the word "buffalo" repeated any number of times is grammatically correct. The shortest is "Buffalo!", which can be taken as a verbal
442:
Neither
Rapaport, Pinker, nor Senghas were initially aware of the earlier coinages. Pinker learned of Rapaport's earlier example only in 1994, and Rapaport was not informed of Borgmann's sentence until 2006.
301:
Buffalo buffalo (animals called "buffalo" from the city of
Buffalo) Buffalo buffalo buffalo (that the same kind of animals from the city bully) buffalo Buffalo buffalo (bully these animals from that city).
509:
411:, though the chapter containing it was omitted from the published version. Borgmann recycled some of the material from this chapter, including the "buffalo" sentence, in his 1967 book,
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674:
710:
413:
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129:
189:
A semantically equivalent form preserving the original word order is: "Buffalonian bison that other
Buffalonian bison bully also bully Buffalonian bison."
439:
as an example of a sentence that is "seemingly nonsensical" but grammatical. Pinker names his student, Annie
Senghas, as the inventor of the sentence.
282:
An expanded form of the sentence that preserves the original word order is: "Buffalo bison that other
Buffalo bison bully also bully Buffalo bison."
425:, came up with versions containing five and ten instances of "buffalo". He later used both versions in his teaching, and in 1992 posted them to the
514:
401:
several times in the 20th century. The earliest known written example, "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo", appears in the original manuscript for
1002:
637:
474:
271:, there can be no commas. The relative pronouns "which" or "that" could appear between the second and third words of the sentence, as in
643:
847:
756:
607:
307:
Bison from
Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community in turn intimidate other bison in their community.
683:
499:
883:
882:
208:
The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are:
792:
566:
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The idea that one can construct a grammatically correct sentence consisting of nothing but repetitions of "buffalo" was
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997:
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Versions of this linguistic oddity can be constructed with other words which similarly simultaneously serve as
468:
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276:
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104:
43:
435:
957:
540:
407:
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258:; one possible parse (marking each "buffalo" with its part of speech as shown above) is as follows:
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James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
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705:
669:
447:
402:
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197:
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53:
148:(acting as an adjective) to refer to a specific place named Buffalo, such as the city of
232:, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes" or "buffalos"), in order to avoid
304:
buffalo(es) from
Buffalo buffalo(es) from Buffalo intimidate buffalo(es) from Buffalo.
123:. It has been discussed in literature in various forms since 1967, when it appeared in
101:
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814:
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430:
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261: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
264:
When grouped syntactically, this is equivalent to: intimidate (Buffalonian bison).
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930:
462:
386:
216:
145:
881:
450:, adjective, and verb, some of which need no capitalization (such as "police").
345:
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48:
576:
247:
940:"Teaching mathematics: The gulf between semantics (meaning) and syntax (form)"
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37:
723:
517:(a Japanese sentence which can be written using the same character 12 times).
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was created from a revision of this article dated 9 December 2006
782:
351:
Buffalo from
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo.
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749:"A History of the Sentence 'Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'"
571:
958:
A History of the
Sentence "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo."
273:
Buffalo buffalo that
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
502:(a Classical Chinese poem in which every syllable is pronounced as
297:(at least in the city of Buffalo – implicitly, Buffalo, New York):
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196:
178:
87:
79:
31:
243:
226:
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can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs through
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63:
98:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
275:; when this pronoun is omitted, the relative clause becomes a
250:" meaning to outwit, confuse, deceive, intimidate, or baffle.
879:
429:. A sentence with eight consecutive buffalos is featured in
344:
subject) buffalo (subordinate clause verb) in turn buffalo (
367:
Diagram using a comparison to explain the buffalo sentence
136:
The sentence employs three distinct meanings of the word
510:
That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is
340:
Buffalo buffalo (main clause subject) Buffalo buffalo (
166:) "to bully, harass, or intimidate" or "to baffle"; and
753:
University at Buffalo Computer Science and Engineering
598:
Henle, James; Garfield, Jay; Tymoczko, Thomas (2011).
820:
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
92:
American bison, colloquially referred to as buffalo
675:Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
348:verb) Buffalo buffalo (main clause direct object).
711:Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought
414:Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought
130:Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought
892:
111:that is often presented as an example of how
8:
823:. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.
629:Sweet reason: a field guide to modern logic
600:Sweet Reason: A Field Guide to Modern Logic
783:"Message 1: Re: 3.154 Parsing Challenges"
739:
737:
735:
733:
909:, and does not reflect subsequent edits.
626:Thomas Tymoczko; James M. Henle (2000).
490:Other linguistically complex sentences:
215:a city named Buffalo. This is used as a
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619:
527:
515:Neko no ko koneko, shishi no ko kojishi
836:Generalized Transformations and Beyond
7:
795:from the original on 19 October 2009
686:from the original on 1 November 2014
536:"buffalo (verb) in American English"
475:List of linguistic example sentences
291:are intimidated or bullied by bison
173:to refer to the animal (either the
646:from the original on 22 April 2020
25:
759:from the original on 21 June 2008
500:Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den
359:A diagram explaining the sentence
891:
289:sentence claims that bison who
18:Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo
1:
834:Gärtner, Hans-Martin (2002).
506:, though with varying tones).
421:, then a graduate student at
27:Sentence composed of homonyms
1003:Linguistic example sentences
267:Because the sentence has a
1019:
632:(2 ed.). Birkhäuser.
469:Eats, Shoots & Leaves
295:intimidate or bully bison
84:City of Buffalo, New York
670:"The Borgmann Apocrypha"
399:independently discovered
716:Charles Scribner's Sons
602:. John Wiley and Sons.
567:"Definition of buffalo"
563:Oxford University Press
329:Buffalo buffalo (verb)
277:reduced relative clause
256:syntactically ambiguous
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867:Listen to this article
368:
360:
205:
181:). The plural is also
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436:The Language Instinct
366:
358:
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193:Sentence construction
102:grammatically correct
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83:
35:
918:More spoken articles
781:(19 February 1992).
779:Rapaport, William J.
745:Rapaport, William J.
541:Macmillan Dictionary
408:Language on Vacation
202:Reed–Kellogg diagram
954:William J. Rapaport
706:Borgmann, Dmitri A.
666:Eckler, A. Ross Jr.
419:William J. Rapaport
926:Buffaloing buffalo
888:
747:(5 October 2012).
485:Semantic satiation
423:Indiana University
369:
361:
342:subordinate clause
269:restrictive clause
206:
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998:Buffalo, New York
937:Easdown, David.
934:, 20 January 2005
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668:(November 2005).
639:978-0-387-98930-3
150:Buffalo, New York
121:lexical ambiguity
16:(Redirected from
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389:in linguistics.
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146:attributive noun
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842:. p. 58.
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682:(4): 258–260.
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431:Steven Pinker
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427:LINGUIST List
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405:'s 1965 book
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385:illustrating
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799:14 September
797:. Retrieved
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761:. Retrieved
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714:. New York:
709:
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688:. Retrieved
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650:23 September
648:. Retrieved
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581:. Retrieved
577:the original
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545:. Retrieved
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467:
463:Antanaclasis
457:
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417:. In 1972,
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217:noun adjunct
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175:true buffalo
159:
137:
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97:
95:
29:
346:main clause
64:proper noun
59:verb phrase
49:noun phrase
36:Simplified
988:Word games
967:Categories
914:Audio help
905:2006-12-09
838:. Berlin:
763:7 December
690:9 December
522:References
480:Polyptoton
382:imperative
285:Thus, the
160:to buffalo
117:homophones
38:parse tree
993:Word play
724:655067975
458:General:
983:Homonymy
916: ·
817:(1994).
793:Archived
757:Archived
708:(1967).
684:Archived
644:Archived
454:See also
337:Buffalo.
333:buffalo
325:buffalo
317:Buffalo
313:buffalo
234:articles
113:homonyms
105:sentence
44:sentence
978:Grammar
903: (
874:minutes
321:buffalo
319:who are
248:buffalo
230:buffalo
183:buffalo
177:or the
155:As the
138:buffalo
109:English
100:" is a
947:
846:
722:
636:
606:
583:29 May
572:Lexico
547:29 May
393:Origin
287:parsed
144:As an
943:(PDF)
372:Usage
331:other
323:ed by
179:bison
169:As a
62:PN =
57:VP =
52:RC =
47:NP =
844:ISBN
801:2006
765:2014
720:OCLC
692:2014
652:2016
634:ISBN
604:ISBN
585:2021
549:2021
335:from
327:from
315:from
244:verb
242:the
227:noun
225:the
171:noun
157:verb
115:and
74:verb
72:V =
69:noun
67:N =
42:S =
928:at
504:shi
311:The
127:'s
107:in
969::
956:,
791:.
785:.
755:.
751:.
732:^
718:.
680:38
678:.
672:.
642:.
618:^
569:.
565:.
538:.
279:.
240:v.
223:n.
213:a.
140::
133:.
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907:)
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872:5
869:(
852:.
803:.
767:.
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694:.
654:.
612:.
587:.
551:.
246:"
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185:.
152:;
96:"
40::
20:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
