文字遊戲之Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo...

    上學期的英語課裡學到的一個最牛B的東西就是“a moving moving moving van”。你知道短語裡每個“moving”各是什麼意思嗎？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?

    當然，這還不算牛B。另一個經典的牛B句子包含了五個連續的“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，那個關於had had had的句子也很有趣。你能給下面這句話加上合適的標點嗎？

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

    加上合適的標點後，這句話的內容是完全合理的。這句話可能會出現在語法課上，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.

    這句話的另一個常見的版本是：

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

    之所以寫這些東西，是因為剛才在digg上看到了一個類似的牛B東東。你相信嗎，下面這句話在語法上是完全合理的，整句話裡不再需要引號之類的其它標點：

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

    試圖理解這句話之前，你可以先查一查單詞buffalo有哪些意思。buffalo可以當水牛講，而Buffalo也是美國紐約的一個城市。buffalo還可以用作動詞，是恐嚇、威脅的意思。因此，這句話可以這樣理解：

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

    意思是，Buffalo市裡有這樣一些水牛，該市的其它水牛都威嚇著它們，而它們反過來也恐嚇著這個城市裡的其它水牛。