From: Brett Paatsch (paatschb@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Sun Jun 01 2003 - 21:07:51 MDT
Michael M Butler writes:
Brett Paatsch wrote:
> >
> > What do you figure the following actually means?
> >
> > Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
> I lack context, regrettably.
A fair point !
Let me quote a bit more and hope I get by inside the
"educational copyright" limit.
"The Language of the Mind"
"Perhaps the most important result of ... many and varied
empirical and theoretical findings is that human consciousness,
together with its predecessors and components, is in certain
important ways localised rather than global, just as the cells
and functions of the rest of the body chunk together into
relatively autonomous organs. Even when the world comes
at us in heavily preprocessed human language, we do not
always find it easy to comprehend. Suppose you flip to the
golden oldies station, and the Beatles sing 'the girl with colitis
goes by'? Is this a weird acid flashback? Someone remarks,
'It's a doggy-dog world', Then John Prine is singing, 'It's a
happy enchilada, and you think you're gonna drown'. That
can't be right! Ah: "It's a half an inch of water', 'dog-eat-dog',
'kaleidoscope eyes'. These comic examples are from linguist
Steven Pinker."
"It is much worse when we try and understand some
completely new aspect of the world, one not yet modelled
by our customary fallible set of linguistic gadgets. Arguably,
this is why science took so long to emerge, why it has done
so only once in history (despite some honourable near-
misses), and is easily shoved aside by inane but comforting
superstitions. Even ordinary speech can be evasive, which
is why we are baffled by this perfectly grammatical sentence:
'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.'
... A buffalo from Buffalo is a Buffalo buffalo, which might
'buffalo' or browbeat its kin."
So.... [insert interpretation here]
"This diabolic sentence is cited by Steven Pinker as an
instance of the reach and limitations of our language 'organ',
the DNA-specified mental 'instinct' that powers our speech
and writing."
--------
- Brett Paatsch
(who needs to work on the skill of concise excerpting)
BTW. If I quoted successfully I have two degrees of
separation from the assertion that 'buffalo' is a verb. ;-)
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