User:Simon/Affirmative Generator

Affirmative Generator

Based on the power of having P.M.A (Positive Mental Attitude), this is a generator for making affirmations to print and display in the work space. Its use is not limited to this space, but this is taken as a departure point for testing. The Affirmative Generator (AF) is a tool that takes from a selection of words within a key syntax - a template for this is the famous "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" sentence presented by Dmitri Borgmann in Beyond Language: Adventures in Word and Thought in 1967. These sentences introduce the idea of syntactic ambiguity - by which a sentence may be interpreted in more than one way due to its ambiguity.

This sentence demonstrates the productive power of language in both its components and thing that are omitted in the form of the sentence, but retained in the mind of the listener. This particular sentence uses the word "buffalo" as 3 compnents:

1. A proper noun (meaning the city of Buffalo in upstate New York).
2. A verb (meaning to bully - an uncommon spoken use, but familiar to North American English speakers)
3. A common noun (meaning a kind of bison indigenous to certain parts of North America)

So the sentence can be read as:

Buffalo buffalo (Buffalo that are from the town of Buffalo)

Buffalo buffalo buffalo (that other buffalo from Buffalo)

buffalo (a verb, meaning to bully or harrass)

Bufallo buffalo (same as first line) [themselves] bully buffalo from Buffalo