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SLD said:
James Brown said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
Continuing with our journey to hell with English...

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I'm not quite getting it. Does the capitalized 'Buffalo' only refer to the name of the city? If so, I can't parse the appearance of the second occurrence of 'Buffalo'


Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Buffalo bisons,     ?   bisons     ?  , bully   Buffalo bisons.
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I think it’s Bison bully city bisons . . . But after that I’m not sure. ETA; Wait. That’s not right. I think it’s the city bison bully other city bison.
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It's:

Buffalo bison, Buffalo bison intimidate, intimidate Buffalo bison.

Adding some optional helper words:

Buffalo bison, whom other Buffalo bison intimidate, themselves intimidate still other Buffalo bison.

That second clause is a fairly unusual construction. Compare:

Donald, many people say, is an insurrectionist.​

Perhaps not many people say that. What if only people from Buffalo, NY say it?

Donald, Buffalo people say, is an insurrectionist.​

But wait, it's not people saying it, it's bison:

Donald, Buffalo buffalo say, is an insurrectionist.​

And obviously, the verb to say could be substituted for the verb to intimidate, completing the middle clause:

Donald, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, is an insurrectionist.​

So now Donald, who is intimidated by Buffalo bison, is an insurrectionist. Note the more common word order bolded here - intimidated moves to the front of the clause, and now needs 'who is' and 'by' to identify subject and object.

Btw, Bison, like sheep (or buffalo), is its own plural.
 
So based on the original image, I think it would go like this.

Some bison (plural) from Buffalo (wearing orange and yellow), whom have been bullied by other bison (plural) from Buffalo (wearing blue), themselves are prone to bullying a bison from Buffalo (singular, wearing blue).

Thanks for helping break it down, @bilby , although I see you can't discuss Donald the insurrectionist without the use of commas, which the original Buffalo buffalo sentence doesn't have. I think it's the lack of punctuation that was throwing me.

Isn't that one of the primary reasons for punctuation, to provide clarity?

Let's eat, Grandma! (Yum!)
Let's eat Grandma! (YUM!)

Twenty-five dollar bills ($25)
Twenty five-dollar bills ($100)

I want to thank my parents, Mary and God. (Okay, Jesus. We get it. Time to move on.)
I want to thank my parents, Mary, and God. (Peter, the Gospel of Mark is not about you.)

A woman without her man is nothing.
A woman; without her, man is nothing.
 
James Brown said:
I see you can't discuss Donald the insurrectionist without the use of commas, which the original Buffalo buffalo sentence doesn't have. I think it's the lack of punctuation that was throwing me.
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The commas are not mandatory, they are just there for clarity - taking them out doesn't alter the meaning. The Buffalo buffalo sentence omits them because the joke works better the more obscure the sentence becomes.
 
bilby said:
James Brown said:
I see you can't discuss Donald the insurrectionist without the use of commas, which the original Buffalo buffalo sentence doesn't have. I think it's the lack of punctuation that was throwing me.
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The commas are not mandatory, they are just there for clarity - taking them out doesn't alter the meaning. The Buffalo buffalo sentence omits them because the joke works better the more obscure the sentence becomes.
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Spoken like someone who helped their Uncle Jack off a horse.
 
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