this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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American bisons from the city of Buffalo: (Buffalo buffalo)
[that]
American bisons from the city of Buffalo confuse: (Buffalo buffalo buffalo)
[also]
confuse American bisons from the city of Buffalo: (buffalo Buffalo buffalo)
Syracuse cows Syracuse cows confuse confuse Syracuse cows.
This sentence probably worked better at a time when "buffalo" was actually a commonly used verb. It's also made really confusing by using a "reduced relative clause" in a way that almost no native speaker would use it.
You can use a reduced relative clause in ways that aren't at all confusing, like:
"The burger I ate was delicious" vs. with a normal relative clause "The burger that I ate was delicious".
But this one is more like:
"Gazelles lions eat are slow." vs. "Gazelles that lions eat are slow."
I don't know what exactly it is, but that is much more confusing. Maybe because the distinction between the subject (Gazelles) and the relative clause ([that] lions eat) is much less obvious, making it hard to parse.