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Interestingly, one can in fact create valid English sentences of arbitrary length composed entirely of the word "Buffalo." By induction:

n = 1 is valid as the imperative of the verb. That is to say, "Buffalo" means "You should harangue someone."

n = 2 is valid again as the imperative, this time with a subject: buffalo. That is, "Buffalo buffalo" means "You should harangue some bison."

For n > 2, assume that the sentence for n - 1 is valid. This sentence will contain at least one instance of the noun "buffalo" (meaning the animal), either with or without the adjective "Buffalo" (meaning the city) prefixing it. If there is no adjective, we can add one to get an n-length sentence. If there is an adjective, we can replace "Buffalo buffalo" (meaning bison from New York) with "buffalo buffalo buffalo" (meaning bison that are harangued by other bison), again yielding an n-length sentence. Thus, by induction, a buffalo sentence can be constructed for any n.



For n=2, you have a verb and an object, but no subject.


What's with the downvote? I understand the implied subject, but this part:

n = 2 is valid again as the imperative, this time with a subject: buffalo. That is, "Buffalo buffalo" means "You should harangue some bison."

is wrong. The two "buffalo" are the verb and the object. Neither of them is a subject.


You're right. I got my terminology mixed up.


The subject (you) is implied by the imperative.


n=2 could also mean "Bison do harangue."


It works for the word "tin" as well.


A rather tinny sort of word, don't you think?




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