Anand, I mean wow, too much wow :) On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 2:53 PM, Anand Manikutty <manikuttyan...@yahoo.com>wrote:
> There has been a discussion on the Internets on "Buffalo Buffalo ..." > ever since Paul Krugman posted about the sentence on his New York Times > blog. Brad DeLong posted about it also. Brad DeLong got it up to 10 buffalo, > but more is possible. This is a matter of international significance and so > must be covered on this here list. > > My major concern with extending the Buffalo sentence ad infinitum > (specifically, to infinitely many instances of the word "buffalo") is that > that since they are talking about a real city, and real animals, there may > be issues of emptiness. The problem of emptiness is as follows. Now, the > idea in forming these large sentences is that the word buffalo is both a > plural noun as well as a transitive verb. Furthermore, it is also a place > name. Now, the set of Buffalo buffalo that buffalo other buffalo may be > small. The set of Buffalo buffalo that Buffalo buffalo buffalo may be even > smaller. So, as you can see, there may be no buffalo left pretty soon. So, > while it may be theoretically possible to make that sentence as long as you > like, there may not be any members of the set left to utilize and so saying > that the members of this empty set do something is kind of pointless. > > Not to worry. Because there is fish. And there is also a fictional town > called Fish (see linked here : > http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Town-Called-FISH---By-the-MLM-Insider&id=1315616). > Now to continue that story : the great thing about these fish from the town > called Fish is - well, one, they are Fish fish; and two, they can even look > for other swimming creatures with fins (i.e.) they can fish. > > So. > > Fish fish fish fish. (that is, fish from the town of Fish fish (for) fish). > To build up an arbitrarily large sentence involving fish, I give you the > following grammar: > > Sentence -> NX V [N_that_is_the_name_of_a_place] N > > NX -> N NX V | N N V > > Here, N = fish as a noun > V = fish as a verb > N_that_is_the_name_of_a_place = Fish, the town > NX = a grammar construct that is used to simply create an arbitrarily large > sentence. > > Note that N_that_is_the_name_of_a_place is optional. You can use this to > generate Fish^N for any N larger than 4. For N smaller than 5, well, you can > easily see that those are perfectly valid sentences too. That should take > care of everything. > > Anand > > == > P.S. A sample construct of this grammar is the sentence below : > > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) > fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Noun) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) > fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) fish(Verb) Fish fish(Noun) > > P.P.S. More here : > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indo-euro-americo-asian_list/message/433 >
