This week we learned about Cognitive Linguistics by watching Arrival (2016) and “Darmok” Star Trek: The Next Generation. They were great examples of how important and complex language can be. Being bilingual myself, it made me realize how phrases and jokes are lost through interpretation when trying to translate Spanish to English. Which makes languages that are incredibly different, that much more difficult to interpret and understand even after years of study.
“Darmok” Star Trek: The Next Generation
In the episode Darmok, the Enterprise is arriving on a planet called El-Adrel, a planet in which communication hasn’t been established, and therefore formal relations haven’t either. In order to try to communicate, the Enterprise observes the Tamarians when they are talking, and the same could be said about the Tamarians observing how the Enterprise is communicating. This could be through their tone of voice, their facial expressions, and objects being exchanged or shown. This causes confusion when the Tamarians hold out two knives and Captain Picard interprets it as a means to start a war. Captain Picard mentions how in order to communicate they need to have patience and imagination. Through patience Captain Ricard doesn’t act immediately, but waits for additional information to provide new context; “Darmok and Jalad” changes to “Darmok and Jalad on the ocean.” This clarifies that two individuals are together in a place, and not just naming two individuals. Imagination was needed by putting certain phrases together and their meaning, which happens when Captain Picard realizes that the Tamarians communicate in metaphors. This important aspect of the way they communicate and the experiences they encountered while alone on the island, leads Captain Picard to bond with the Tamarian captain by sharing a similar story about the Gilgamesh. Even though they barely understand each other, they are able to understand some words, and the meaning behind those words ultimately is enough for them to bond.
Arrival (2016)
In Arrival (2016), Dr. Louise Banks is a linguistics professor on a mission to try to translate and communicate with an alien species (heptapods) that have arrived on a spaceship. In the beginning, she states that “It would be impossible to translate from an audio file. I would need to be there to interpret with them.” This shows the importance of being able to observe how others communicate, their tone of voice, their hand movements, and any form of writing. Dr. Banks explains how easy it is to misinterpret a word or phrase because their usage might mean something else in another language/culture, or in this case, a species. Dr. Banks had to study each individual symbol and the way they were formed, as a way to also study the heptapods. Studying their way of communicating would help them figure out how they operate as a species, and what their purpose is. I thought it was interesting how the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was brought up on how the language you speak determines how you think and see everything, even though it influences thought and decisions instead.
7 thoughts on “I’M ON A MISSION….TO EAT? TO MARS? I NEED MORE INFO!”
Star Trek always confused me and this episode was no exception. It took me about half of the episode to realize they spoke in metaphors because of how hard-wired my brain is to actual sentences. Even though they are speaking the same “language” as us, we still had no idea what they were saying because their cognitive minds were developed completely different from ours.
jjwaterman
Hi Jeremy,
This is a great point! It can be really hard to see outside of our existing conceptual system!
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Alessa,
I love that you begin your blog by thinking about how sometimes the meanings of words and phrases are untranslatable. That is because they are representing a concept that does not have an linguistic equivalent in the other language. This explains why sometimes English adopts words and phrases from other languages—like schadenfreude or déjà vu—into. We don’t have an English equivalent of “the feeling of being happy about a disliked person’s misfortune” or “the feeling of experiencing something again.” By integrating these words, we are integrating these concepts into our conceptual system.
I think that it is really interesting that you are connecting the concept of frame-shifting to the Star Trek episode from this week. It is worth noting, though, that before Darmok and Jalad were on the ocean, they were at Tanagra. “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” translates, roughly, to “cooperating, especially between to enemies.” “Darmok and Jalad on the ocean” means “new understanding or friendship.” The location—“at Tanagra” or “on the ocean”—added to the phrase “Darmok and Jalad” shifts the frames through which we structure our understanding of it.
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Alessa,
I think it is really important to get the bilingual perspective in this conversation. I interpreted their communication a little differently. You said, ” a planet in which communication hasn’t been established, and therefore formal relations haven’t either.” I personally saw it as more of a case of simply a very drastically linguistic situation being established. In fact, I would say when we see the officials interact with each other we see a very clear demonstration of formal relations between characters from the planet called El-Aderal. Another demonstration of this is when their captain is interacting with the captain of the enterprise. There is a lot of evidence that suggests evidence to support communication and formal relations.
onobs
Hey Alessa!
I love hearing your perspective as a bilingual speaker in regards to the Tamarian language of metaphors; I only speak one language, so I didn’t even think about how the same miscommunication can happen on Earth! It reminded me of that trend on Tik Tok where people translate weird/funny metaphors or sayings in their language to English. Some sayings that other languages use make a lot of sense after putting some thought into it, but initially, would confuse a lot of English speakers. I’m sure this applies to English phrases for non-English speakers, as well.
I also like your point in regards to Arrival about how tone and body movements are integral in communication. It calls back to the idea of embodied cognition and how the body cannot be disconnected from the mind. This is also illustrated in the miscommunication over the word “weapon”. While the heptopods don’t view the word as inherently violent, the humans do. This misunderstanding might not have happened if Louise was able to understand the tone of the sentence.
mchupick
Hi Maddy,
Yes! This is an important point. There are some idiomatic phrases that are non-translatable. You can get a literal translation, for example, but that doesn’t help you to understand it because it doesn’t access the figurative meaning of the phrase.
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Alessa,
Great post! I liked that you emphasized that body language is just as important as our speech. Though Dr. Banks seemed friendly, the heptapods couldn’t verify it since the hazmat suit hid her body. The hazmat suit gave off the impression that the Americans were scared of the heptapods and viewed them as their enemy. I think that the heptapods value body language because, even when we try to suppress it, our body language reveals our true intentions.
Also, I found the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis interesting (and a little creepy). It shocked me when Dr. Banks started dreaming in heptapod language.
toyoung