I was first introduced to this sort of recursive sentence construction with an example using two different words rather than one: for any n, “oysters^n split^n” is a grammatical English sentence. I find that (1) this is easier to get my head around than iterated-buffalo and (2) having grasped it makes iterated-buffalo easier to parse.
“Oysters” is a plural noun phrase. If N is a plural noun phrase then “oysters N split” is a plural noun phrase, meaning “oysters that are split open by N”. So oysters^n split^(n-1) is a plural noun phrase for any positive integer n.
And then if N is a plural noun phrase then “N split” is a sentence, meaning that the things described by N split open. (Or run away quickly, but that’s less likely for oysters.) So oysters^n split^n is a sentence for any positive integer n.
And now you can notice that “buffalo” is both a plural noun and a transitive verb, and furthermore a verb that can kinda-plausibly take buffalo as subject and object, which means that the first half of that construction works fine with “buffalo” taking the place of both “oysters” and “split”.
(It’s a little strange to use “buffalo” with subject but no object, so usually the last stage of the construction is done differently with buffalo.)
I was first introduced to this sort of recursive sentence construction with an example using two different words rather than one: for any n, “oysters^n split^n” is a grammatical English sentence. I find that (1) this is easier to get my head around than iterated-buffalo and (2) having grasped it makes iterated-buffalo easier to parse.
“Oysters” is a plural noun phrase. If N is a plural noun phrase then “oysters N split” is a plural noun phrase, meaning “oysters that are split open by N”. So oysters^n split^(n-1) is a plural noun phrase for any positive integer n.
And then if N is a plural noun phrase then “N split” is a sentence, meaning that the things described by N split open. (Or run away quickly, but that’s less likely for oysters.) So oysters^n split^n is a sentence for any positive integer n.
And now you can notice that “buffalo” is both a plural noun and a transitive verb, and furthermore a verb that can kinda-plausibly take buffalo as subject and object, which means that the first half of that construction works fine with “buffalo” taking the place of both “oysters” and “split”.
(It’s a little strange to use “buffalo” with subject but no object, so usually the last stage of the construction is done differently with buffalo.)