It's because they chose the declaration syntax to match the usage syntax, rather than as a modification of the type. i.e. long (*f)(int); means, if you dere

It's because they chose the declaration syntax to match the usage syntax, rather than as a modification of the type. i.e. long (*f)(int); means, if you dereference f (i.e. write *f), you get long(int). If you then call it with an int, you get long. It's pattern matching against the usage.