文字游戏之Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo…

上学期的英语课里学到的一个最牛B的东西就是“a moving moving moving van”。你知道短语里每个“moving”各是什么意思吗？答案如下：

A truck which carries everything you own is a moving van, and it's easy to visualize a moving moving van. Can you imagine, though, being moved to tears about moving your possessions and thus seeing it as a moving moving moving van?

当然，这还不算牛B。另一个经典的牛B句子包含了五个连续的“and”：

The landlord of a pub called The Pig And Whistle asked a signwriter to make a new sign. When he saw it he thought that the words were too close together so he said to the signwriter "I want more space between Pig and And and And and Whistle".

另外，那个关于had had had的句子也很有趣。你能给下面这句话加上合适的标点吗？

John where Peter had had had had had had had had had had had the most marks in the exam

加上合适的标点后，这句话的内容是完全合理的。这句话可能会出现在语法课上，可以理解如下：

John, where Peter had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'Had had' had had the most marks in the exam.

这句话的另一个常见的版本是：

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

之所以写这些东西，是因为刚才在digg上看到了一个类似的牛B东东。你相信吗，下面这句话在语法上是完全合理的，整句话里不再需要引号之类的其它标点：

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

试图理解这句话之前，你可以先查一查单词buffalo有哪些意思。buffalo可以当水牛讲，而Buffalo也是美国纽约的一个城市。buffalo还可以用作动词，是恐吓、威胁的意思。因此，这句话可以这样理解：

[Those] (Buffalo buffalo) [whom] (Buffalo buffalo buffalo) buffalo (Buffalo buffalo).

意思是，Buffalo市里有这样一些水牛，该市的其它水牛都威吓着它们，而它们反过来也恐吓着这个城市里的其它水牛。