Exploring Parts of Speech with Northeastern Buffalo

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

No, my cat did not just step on my keyboard. What you just read was a complete sentence. A quirky conundrum demonstrating just how insane the English language can be.

Buffalo Bulls Fighting, courtesy of Paul Kane, 1846 (Retrieved from https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-kane/buffalo-bulls-fighting)

It’s silly, stupid, and genius all at once. Shakespeare’s pipe dream. A proofreader’s nightmare.

And yet, it reveals something fascinating about words when you delve deeper.

Parts of Speech

A grammar lesson you probably learned (and long forgot) in grade school — a word can take on different meanings depending on how you use it in a sentence. These different meanings are called the word’s parts of speech. We’re talking noun, verb, adjective, adverb. That sort of thing.

The word “get” has over 102 different meanings according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Each variety has a distinct definition based on its use in a sentence.

For example:

She got my text; she just didn’t reply.

I need all the help I can get to ace this test.

Be sure to get that form signed by the doctor.

Get it? Good. Now, let’s actually break down the buffalo sentence into its parts to truly appreciate this linguistic masterpiece.

Let’s Take It from the Top.

We’ll start nice and easy with the first two words. (Important side note: capitalization matters. More on that in a bit.)

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

The first use here is a proper noun, referring to the city of Buffalo, New York. (For the record, there are other states with Buffalo city names. I’m looking at you, Buffalo, Missouri. For the sake of example, though, let’s say Buffalo, New York.)

So, these two words together tell us that we have a group of buffalo from Buffalo, New York. Simple enough.

And now that we know we’re talking about the city of Buffalo, New York, we can apply the same rule to all the capital-B buffalo.

Must be a popular bison tourist spot.

The Buffalo, New York skyline (Retrieved from https://www.visittheusa.com/destination/buffalo)

Jump to the Middle of the Herd.

Ignore the third, fourth, and fifth buffalo for a sec. Don’t worry. We’ll come back to them. For now, though, let’s get the verb out of the way.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

The first lowercase buffalo italicized and bolded here serves as the main verb in our sentence.

To buffalo someone means to bully or pester them. To give them a hard time. So that means — ignoring the third, fourth, and fifth words — buffalo from Buffalo, New York are bullying some other buffalo from Buffalo, New York.

You with me so far?

Now, Hold onto Your Buffalo.

From here on out, we’re getting really technical. The rest of the buffalo we have to rangle in are within clauses — those fancy things that add more information to a sentence, but actually aren’t really needed.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

For these three buffalo, we’re going back to Buffalo, New York. Besides our first group of buffalo, who are bullying a second group of buffalo, there’s a third group who also happens to be from Buffalo, that’s bullying the first group.

And the same thing is happening here:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

In this case, yet another group of buffalo from Buffalo is bullying the same group of buffalo that the first group is bullying.

Synonyms Save the Day.

Another word for a buffalo is a bison.

So, we can replace all our nouns with bison and all our verbs with bully to help clear up the meaning of our sentence even more.

Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully.

If we add in some more filler words and move some words around a bit, we get as clear of a description as we can get.

Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are bullied by some other bison — also from Buffalo, New York — are bullying bison from Buffalo, New York that yet another group of bison from Buffalo, New York are also bullying.

Or, put as simply as possible: Bison bully bison.

What is it about Buffalo that just makes bison so violent? Sheesh.

We’re Finally Finished!

What a journey! You made it! And you learned something! I’m proud of you.

Tell your friends at your next get-together. Or keep it to yourself. But whatever you choose to do, take time to think about other words that have different meanings.

Look up some more quirky word usage.

Embrace the wonders of the English language.

And, most importantly, go Buffalo!

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