Linguistics is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood of the sciences. Many people see linguists as finger-waving language critics, and even some other scientists don’t think of the field as “real science.” But linguists may get the chance to set the record straight this weekend with the release of the sci-fi blockbuster Arrival. The film follows linguistics professor Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, after a series of mysterious alien spacecraft suddenly appear in Earth’s skies.
While the world reacts with confusion and fear to the extraterrestrial visitors, Banks is recruited by the U.S. military to make contact with the aliens—large, seven-limbed “heptapods”—and make sense of their bizarre language, the written version of which constructs entire sentences as impossibly complex circles without a set word order. As it becomes increasingly clear just how different the heptapods are from humans, it’s up to Banks to understand what they’re trying to tell us—and to possibly save humanity in the process.
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