In the movie Arrival, Dr. Banks gets the idea to use a white board for visual communication, in order to find some understanding of the alien’s language. The aliens responded to this by providing their own visual aid, using their own system of symbols.
Dr.Banks explains the breakdown of language and finding out if the aliens are capable of understanding a question but how it’s important to learn what they understand before they can ask questions and understand their answers.
My particular favorite interaction is when they’re learning the names of the different aliens based on what they showed them. They assigned them the names Abbott and Costello. During this scene, Dr. Louise Banks also takes off her hazmat gear stating the importance of showing her face when communicating.
They’re called heptapods, and learn they are able to communicate many meanings through symbols with certain curves to them.
A miscommunication in the words they chose to use, leads to the militaries across the globe to want to attack. This is also in part to the lens they’re using in the situation, to take everything as a threat.The heptapods said weapon when they meant tool, which connects back to the lecture where different cultures and languages use different words to communicate the same idea.
I love and hate the moment (just because it’s so sad) where she gives her daughter a new meaning the word unstoppable, knowing she’d be getting this unstoppable disease and calling her daughter unstoppable and making it positive.
I was shocked when I learned all the flashbacks were actually her seeing into the future and despite it all, despite knowing her daughter will one day die, her husband and her will separate, after adopting and teaching this language, she was able to operate the same way as the heptapods, who don’t see time as linear.
“Darmok”
In the Star Trek Episode, “Darmok” they are going to encounter the Children of Tama. They continuously try to communicate with each other but neither is taking the time to see what the other’s language means. Similar to the film, there is the assumption that their words are meant to be aggressive but their body language doesn’t read as that at all. Troi points out that one misunderstanding could be detrimental.
I was questioning the smarts of the captain for not figuring out the offer of the knife was not him trying to start a fight but he redeemed himself when he figured out the Tamarians speak in metaphors, but metaphors different from the metaphors referenced in the lecture. Dathon exclaims “…his eyes uncovered!” Which can be understood as meaning, he finally understands!
We also learn that they use imagery from their experiences to speak about certain instances but with that, their ability to communicate using their language seems impossible since they don’t know the imagery being used since they haven’t experienced the thing itself which connects back to the lecture when discussing meaning.
I enjoyed watching both Arrival and “Darmok.” Both demonstrated clear displays of the lecture material from concept of meaning, to conceptual metaphors, and frame shifting but were also entertaining. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Arrival as much as I did!
Language is argued to be the key to thought. The theory is that linguistics and maybe an alien language, can think differently than us. Language comes from what we are taught and know. If aliens speak differently and derived from elsewhere then maybe they think differently as well. “Arrival” makes you question this theory. They hire Louise who studied languages and symbols dating back to Mayans. The Heptapods we learn, the written and spoken do not correlate to each other the same way as human language. Throughout the film she is trying to communicate with these Heptapods. The scene where Louise is placed in this army tent just piecing together this language. Although she is intelligent and it is a movie I have an argument. I feel that it would be needed to be solved within maybe months or years and not so quickly. Her knowledge in the movie makes her the protagonist. We can determine that there can be consequences without having clear communication. What I found interesting as well was when we see the bird used by scientists to test the shells. Humans will often use an animal for testing to see if there are harmful gasses inside to explore it. If the bird dies then there was probably toxins inside. We can assume that we believe aliens are more intelligent than humans. Our brains as humans are curious about the unknown and cautious. Overall great Scifi film!
In the episode entitled “Darmok,” the Enterprise is on-route to the El-Adrel system to make contact with a race called the Children of Tama. They realize the do not know the language making it difficult to communicate. On the bridge Picard asks the offices “But are they truly incomprehensible? In my experience, communication is a matter of patience, imagination. I would like to believe that these are qualities that we have in sufficient measure.” The constant struggle leads them to almost destroying eachother because they cannot understand eachother. They come to a moment of clarity when the Tamarian captain see Picard cold that night on El-Adrel surface. Seeing him struggle he gives Picard a branch and lights it for warmth. As a peace offering he says “Temba, his arms wide.” figuring out that it can be give and take and there is no war.
The important lesson I learned was how important understanding others and language really are. Maybe we can stop and actually listen and understand what others say before jumping to conclusions. Maybe there would be more peace in the world!
I was super excited for this weeks assigned “texts” as our professor puts it. Arrival has been on my “to watch” list for quite some time (more on that later) and as the child of an old-school trekkie, I was eager to finally watch some next gen.
As an English major, writer, and avid reader, language has been a huge part of my academic career as well as my hobbies. One of my major requirements was actually a History of the English Language class and though it was one of my least favorite classes in practice, learning about the linguistic growth of a language I worked so closely with was fascinating.
the phonetic alphabet looks line another language…
This was probably why I loved Story of Your Life so much when I read it during my first year at Stony Brook. For those of you who don’t know, Story of Your Life is the book that Arrival was based on. and in my opinion, the movie was a fair interpretation of the text ! Though I will say, non-linear plotlines read a lot easier on paper, which I think connects to the way Heptapod is read rather than spoken (though I think I remember it being spoken in the short story but that was two years ago and my memory is fuzzy.) The non-linear way the story was told mirrored the non-linear way the Heptapods communicated and thought. What I loved about the Heptapod language was that it was written in a circular form. The Heptapod’s non-linear way of perceiving time directly connects to the shape of their language. If time is being viewed as a circle, or a more three-dimensional shape in the case of the “gift,” it would make sense that language would be written in that way as well.
please read this story it’s fantastic
On the other side of things, in Darmok, the Tamarians express language through imagery and metaphor, connecting their situation and current state to a story or part of their history. It’s as if I decided to communicate only in references from one of my favorite television shows despite the fact that not everyone has seen it. Has anyone even heard of Pushing Daisies ? Anyway, the metaphorical way the Tamarians speak suggest a more abstract outlook on life. While the episode focuses mostly on the two captains learning to understand one another, if we take a step back and pull from the information we learned in Arrival we can infer that the Tamarians have a specific perception of the world.
“with arms wide open” by Creed plays in the distance…
The main argument of Arrival is explained using the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. This theory states that a persons language influences their perception of the world and their thought process. We can see this in the way the Heptapods view time. While we learn very little of the Tamarians, we’re told that “imagery is everything to them.” What must the world look like to someone who experiences life as one extended metaphor ?
The concept of language is very interesting. While one group of people understand words and sentences from a certain language, other groups might not understand the language and it can take us time to work together in order to understand each other. The act of understanding each other is expressed creatively in the movie “The Arrival” and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Darmok”.
The first thing that I watched was “Arrival”, a film that was released in 2016, and was based on the 1998 novella “Story of Your Life”, and after watching the movie, I have to say that is an appropriate title. This movie was an experience to say the least. When I first started watching the film, I thought this was gonna be a simple alien invasion story, akin to “Independence Day”. But, as the movie continued, I realized that the flashbacks and the current story unfolding are being more interconnected, such as with “The Universal Language” book, and Ian being Louise’s husband.
Also, quick nerd fact before I continue, Ian is played by Jeremy Renner who played Hawkeye in “The Avengers”, and Colonel Weber is played by Forest Whitaker, who played Saw Gerrera from “Rouge One: A Star Wars Story”. I love how I first picked that up when I saw them on screen.
Anyway, back to the point, the film does a good job expressing the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. They even mentioned it by name in the movie. To sum it up, the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a hypothesis created back in 1929 by Edward Sapir and later endorsed by Benjamin Whorf. It is defined as “language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories”. This is shown well in the movie, especially near the end where Louise has Agent Halpern’s phone and is trying to call General Shang in China. Thanks to the Heptapods, they tell Louise that she has a weapon that can save their people, with that weapon being her and her memories. She used her mind to remember a future moment of her talking to General Shang and telling him his wife’s dying words, stopping him and his army from firing at the Heptapods. Their language determined Louise’s thoughts and actions.
Afterwards, I watched the Star Trek” The Next Generation episode called “Darmok”. After watching the original series episode and the next generation episode, I can see why people have debates on who’s better: Captain Kirk or Captain Picard. In this episode, captain Kirk and a Tamarian captain, who we later learn is named Dathon, and not Darmok like I thought, are stuck on the planet El-Adrel IV. Picard is unable to understand Captain Dathon, because even though he is speaking English, he’s speaking in phrases such as “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” and “Temba, his arms wide”. The one scene I want to focus on is the scene where Picard is speaking to the dying Dathon, finally understanding his language. Dathon and the other Tamarians show the best examples of Conceptual Metaphors. Conceptual Metaphors are defined as “anchored in our physical and cultural experience, which functions as the source domain for the the metaphors”. So, they use metaphors of previous events in their species’ history in order to explain what they want and mean. So, when Dathon states “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”, its basically a metaphor for him and Picard becoming friends by fighting a common enemy, being the invisible monster on El-Adrel IV.
In this weeks films, cognitive linguistics was very much apparent. We noticed it because we had to for the assignment otherwise, we would have just watched the movie and episode without thinking about the relationship between mind, language, body, and communication.
Something that stood out to me a lot in this weeks VoiceThread was the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. In Arrival Louise explained the hypothesis as a theory that states “[the] language you speak determines how you think… it affects how you see everything” (Arrival 1.02). I really liked how the film explicitly used something we learned. I also really liked the hypothesis in general because it’s something that is true, but nobody thinks about because it’s such a normal thing. One only thinks about it when they come into contact with something different that isn’t like they’re used to.
The film talking about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
In the film, the heptapods communicate using strange figures that the humans know nothing about. Louise is there helping to translate the symbols, but it’s difficult for her too. At one point the heptapods create a symbol that Louise translated to say “offer weapon.” Because of the cognitive linguistics and the cognitive frame that humans have, the scientists believed the heptapods were giving a warning and basically trying to accentuate danger. Louise was able to explain to the scientists that they don’t truly know if the heptapods know the difference between a weapon and a tool. Louise was objective and didn’t want to assume Abbott and Costello wanted to fight. She was aware that the creatures and humans obviously didn’t communicate in the same way.
Abbott and Costello communicatingCostello’s sign meant “offer weapon.”
In the Star Trek episode, it took me a little while to realize that the aliens that they encountered spoke in metaphors and not exactly English which is why the crew had trouble understanding. The captain Dathon told the captain of the crew “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra” and this is actually a metaphor which means working together. They use events that have happened in Tamarian history to communicate how they feel and what they believe is happening.
Working together
In a similar way to Arrival, the strange beings didn’t use weapons in the same way humans, or Star Trek aliens, see weapons as. Dathon holding up two knives didn’t mean he wanted to fight, he was just trying to communicate.
In both films, strange beings are interacting with the “normal” characters. Communication played a huge role because both parties communicated differently. They had to figure out how to understand each other and to know the needs of the strange beings. Both respective parties and even readers saw just how important meaning in languages is embedded in the context of a person, or thing for the heptapods. Language is truly a remarkable form of communication that is so different, yet so similar depending on where it’s coming from.
“Meaning is not a deposit in a concept-container. It is alive and active, dynamic and distributed, constructed for local purposes of knowing and acting” (Mark Turner). We learned this week that the meaning of different words in languages are completely subjective. They are words that are created through social interactions, physical environments, and all the problems and solutions that follow each specific one. “Arrival” and Star Trek The Next Generation’s “Darmok” realize that language is not something that can be immediately understood by an outsider. There are many different factors that go into the creation and understanding of words in a new language.
The crew in Start Trek find themselves at a loss when trying to communicate with an alien race known as The Children of Tama. After failing to communicate as a group, the alien race would transport Picard and their captain to the planet’s surface in order to talk face to face. After continuously failing, Picard becomes cold after trying to start a fire for himself. Knowing that he would not sleep if Picard was cold, the alien takes a lit branch from his own fire and throws it at Picard while saying “Temba, his arms wide”. Even though Picard had no idea what the alien said, he knew that with his tone and politeness that the alien was only trying to help and become friends with him.
“Arrival” was a very interesting movie to watch for the first time. An alien race has landed in multiple different countries across the world and no one on Earth has the means to communicate with them. Top scientists and linguists from around the world are being summoned in order to understand why the aliens are on Earth and what their end goal is. After speaking in shrills and moans, linguist Louise Banks realizes that the best way for us to communicate with them is through written language. Showing the word “Human” to the aliens allowed them to realize that we were trying to communicate and they responded accordingly. When linguistics fail, simply touching or being in close proximity of another person displays trust and a want to be friendly. This is seen by Louise taking off her hazmat suit and placing her hand on the divider between her and the aliens. She wanted to show the aliens who they were really communicating with and that they only desired to learn about them.
To say I love language and words and all that mumbo-jumbo would be a massive understatement. I still remember the days staying up later than I was supposed to, reading by the light of my princess nightlight (That probably messed up my eyes more than I would like to admit, but all good I guess, glasses here I come!). Those were the days, they were also the days where I could function with all the energy in the world on like 3 hours of sleep, but I’m no longer at that point. If I were to operate on three hours of sleep nowadays I would need an energy drink and 4 times the recommended dose of Advil. But, those nights lying awake in bed, squinting to make out the words in my Magic Treehouse Book was some of the fondest memories I cherish, and it set in motion my love, drive and desire to study English. And although when I decided to do that my immigrant parents looked at me in horror and proclaimed that I was going to live in a box, I knew that this was my passion and understood just how important language is.
Now after that long ass intro (Don’t come at me for cursing, it is a valid part of our language goddamn it) we finally get into this analysis of one very stupid (sorry professor) and one amazing piece of media
OK, if I could insert an audible sigh right now I would. And I mean this with my heart in the right place, I really do, but the aliens in Star Trek: The Next Generation are beyond infuriating, actually, it’s mind-boggling how infuriating they truly are. THEY DO NOT HAVE VERBS, let me repeat, NO VERBS. Their language is based upon metaphors, interesting at first (or so I thought before it became infuriating!). Like how do they even communicate? Metaphors, especially metaphors that relate to very specific pop culture or culture-specific things IS NOT A WAY TO COMMUNICATE. Ok, I got that out of my system.
Just to visualize how impossible this would be, I’m going to make our own example. Imagine if I wanted to convey that I was sad and longing for something I would say Gatsby on the dock. But here’s the issue, you misconstrued what I said and interpret it as how he was hopeful and dedicated to trying to get Dasiy back. Or even how Gatsby was living through a pipedream and was detached from reality. The issue is the broad sentences meant to convey extremely specific things lead to multiple interpretations. Not to mention that if you hadn’t even heard about The Great Gatsby, you would have no freaking clue what I was talking about because it’s a conceptual metaphor with no previous context. To communicate with us everyone must know every single story or cultural impactful event in our culture. AND AGAIN NO VERBS!
Metaphors are fantastic, they help us convey very complex feelings into very limited space (Your hardheaded, I’m bent out of shape) but it can not be the crux of an entire language. I would wager that it would be impossible for a language to develop just by using metaphors because I feel as though with almost 8,000 languages on Earth, we would have seen at least ONE example of this occurring. But no, because it is stupid and impossible (sorry professor lol).
The alien species who was able to figure out space travel but not how to add verbs to their language
Now, after that rant, if you haven’t moved on yet, I’m quite shocked actually, but happy nonetheless, and on we go to talk about the good part of this week’s viewings. Arrival has been on my list to watch for a while, and I was glad to finally cross it off! I’m not usually a fan of those slow-burn movies that tone everything down a notch to keep this element of realism in effect, but I found myself enthralled and glued to the screen. Louise saying whose child is that literally caught me off guard so much I audibly gasped, let me tell ya.
The way they approach language is quite fascinating. We never actually see a verbal communication format for Abbott or Costello, it’s all through visual media. Essentially only writing and no talking, is this because they have no mouth? Hard to say because they lived in the densest freaking fog I’ve ever seen so I have no clue if they had mouths even. But the way they present the language in a circular fashion is fascinating. It’s a sentence no doubt just rounded. The blotches represent certain words, and it actually ties into how they perceive time and space, everything is cyclic and follows one after the other. Everything is a circle. This shows just how important the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is when trying to break down language. These creatures see language in these circle blotches, they never thought about language as just an individual blotch, it was always a circle. As compared to how Americans typically look at language as individual words strung together in a straight line, this is a drastic difference just based on how our language developed over time.
This reminds me all too much of those Rorschach Inkblot tests you see in all those old movies about crazy people in an asylum.
This difference in linguistic relativity can even be found on our own planet. Many languages on earth cause certain people to think quite differently from others. For example in Spanish, every person who speaks it sees objects as feminine or masculine. Now compare that with Mandarin where there are no gendered pronouns unless it’s in writing, both he and she is Ta, (With a little bar over the a) and it sounds exactly the same with speaking. This difference causes a huge difference in how these drastically different languages affect the thoughts and views of the world, seeing everything as gendered vs. nothing as gendered.
Language is always something that is going to affect how we view and interpret things. I for one only know some words in Portuguese even though I’m a native English speaker and that makes me look at the world differently than my fellow peers. But even humans who fluently speak the same language can have drastically different interpretations based on their own experiences which causes them to look at the world in slightly differing ways. And so when people tell me, psssshhhh English isn’t that hard I look at them and ask how the hell this is a grammatically correct sentence, “He couldn’t explain that that thing he created wasn’t working.” God, I hate when I’m writing and I have to write a sentence like that. Anyway, English is messy and language is something that I will always cherish, it’s the only difference between us and animals. They may be able to communicate but can they say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? I think not!
“A different language is a different vision of life”- Federico Fellini. As someone who speaks more than one language, this quote really stands out to me. Learning Portuguese over 15 years, speaking with my family, going to the country, and really learning the culture and environment has really shaped me to be the person I am today. The mind, language, body, and communication all work together to create us as individuals. In “Arrival” we learn that we humans can learn a lot by knowing someone’s language. By learning their language, we can understand their mind, body language and how they choose to communicate with each other. In the episode Darmok, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, we learned that the Tamarians language was composed of conceptual metaphors.
I was very excited when she started talking about the history of Portugal, and then Heptapod arrived.
Starting with “Arrival”, “Arrival” is a movie that really made me think twice at the end. This film really teaches us how to think outside the box. Dr Louise Banks and her partner Ian work together and quickly realize that their language is by circular pictures that they create. Every circular pattern has a different meaning. Slowly throughout the movie, we start learning small details. We learn that their language is non-linear so when Louise learned the language, she now knows the future because of how their language is. Time is non- existing for them; they have no understanding of time. It took me awhile to fully understand the movie, but after I figured it out (wow). Louise and Ian are teaching Heptapod by using a white board, by doing the actual concept of the word. In one part of the film, Ian writes on the white board, “Ian walking” and then Ian begins walking in front of them. This shows how the physical body is an important role in communications. We need the mind, language, body, and communication to work as one to understand each other. I think it was fascinating as more the time she was with them, she was truly understanding her and building a bond with her. Louise seemed to start being worried about Abbot and Costello and made sure they were both present. Thinking of the voice thread, cognitive linguistics see language as “embedded in the… interactions with the world.” Louise and the heptapod placing their hands on the screen allow them to truly connect for the first time through their bodies. Allowing the heptapod to see her intentions were pure.
Ian physically walking“Now thats a proper introduction”
Lastly the episode Darmok was a bit harder to grasp for me. The one scene that helped me and I’m sure a lot of people was the comparison of Romeo and Juliet. Deanna states, “Juliet on her balcony”. Dr crusher states at the end that if you don’t know who Juliet is and what she was doing in the balcony than the image alone would not help them understand the meaning of that scene. They made a valid point when pointing that out. They felt like that towards the Tamarians. Embedded Cognition and were used in this episode. The idea that what language is being demonstrated to us is how we experience and feel. Since the Tamarians do not have a sense of individuality, to the point that there is no word “I” in their vocabulary. It makes it harder for them to understand each other. For example Temba says,”Temba, his arms wide”, to indicate his intent to give an item to Picard, and his motive of generosity and friendly helpfulness. We know that we use a lot of metaphors when speaking but with this episode, I think we can fully realize it.
The problem with not understanding someone’s language is that it can turn in unexpected and not wanted violence. Words and body language can become twisted and make a person believe something else that was not what the original idea was. With both “Arrival” and Darmok both could have ended with war and people dying, just because they had both different ways of communicating.
The film Arrival and the tv episode “Darmok” in Star Trek: The Next Generation acknowledge the idea of linguistics. It exhibits how it affects our cognitive perception, or rather how it is part of our cognitive perception. Language influences how we understand who and what is around us.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
In Module 2, we briefly discussed embedded cognition, which acknowledges our interaction with the environment as a part of our cognition. The context within our physical and social environments are considered an important piece of our cognition. Embedded cognition goes hand in hand with this episode.
In one scene, Dr. Crusher, Data, Riker, and Deanna are seated together. Data and Deanna explain that the Tamarians communicate through imagery, specifically imagery of their mythological history. Deanna mentions how it’s like saying, “Juliet on her balcony”, to which Dr. Crusher adds, “An image of romance.” Riker mentions the possibility of being able to communicate with them with this information. However, it’s not the case. Dr. Crusher says, “If I didn’t know who Juliet was, or what she was doing on that balcony, the image alone wouldn’t have any meaning.” Essentially, if someone didn’t know the story of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, they wouldn’t know the context of “Juliet on her balcony”, and therefore no emotions or ideas would be evoked. This is the issue the crew has with the Tamarians. They have trouble depicting the Tamarians’ imagery because they don’t know their mythological history. Embedded cognition takes on a large role here. Additionally, the discussion of meaning in the VoiceThread is active in this scene. The idea of the meanings we get from language being influenced by interactions and experiences is demonstrated. The Tamarian language would produce more meaning to the crew if they experienced the same history. That is why Picard reads a Greek mythology book at the end of the episode- to connect his personal mythology history with other species’ and produce meaning. This is like Simulation Theory in Module 3, which is when you can simulate others’ feelings in a situation based on your own experiences.
This image amused me, and I thought I should share it.
Arrival
This movie reveals how the body, language, and cognition play a role together. There is a scene when Louise writes her name on a whiteboard and points to herself saying, “Louise. I am Lousie.” She was attempting to teach the heptapods her name, but to no avail. She then risks her safety and removes her hazmat suit. She says, “They need to see me.” She touches the screen with her hand, to which a heptapod copies. She says, “Now that’s a proper introduction.” Ian ends up repeating her actions, removing the hazmat suit and saying his name while it’s written on the whiteboard. The heptapods then share their names in their written language. Louise recognizes that she must use her body to fully express herself and connect with the heptapods. According to the VoiceThread, cognitive linguistics see language as “embedded in the… interactions with the world.” Louise and the heptapod placing their hands on the screen allow them to truly connect for the first time through their physical interactions, and therefore allows the heptapod to understand her intentions and what she means. Staying in the hazmat suit creates a disconnect, as it is more of a scientific observation between the humans and heptapods rather than a true connection.
Louise connects with the heptapod.
Conclusion
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Arrival both share the importance of bodily experiences and interactions with the environment in order to gain an understanding within language.
In the movie Arrival, I think I saw many overlaps in things we spoke about in class. With Aliens coming down to earth in a pack of twelve there are many issues at play with the main focus of Arrival being communicating with them. One thing is how “cognitive linguistics focuses on the importance of context”, this was a point of interest within the film because a word like weapon could easily be misconstrued as the word tool. When you are developing a basis of communication the specifics are yet to be finely tuned. I think this also has to do with frameshifting in one way or another. Going on the same example, weapon partnered with the word gift is not interpreted in the same manner as the other usage, use weapon. They also mention the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis which was a key point in our lesson, they define it as saying “the language you speak determines how you think, it affects how you see everything” which is accurate to what we learned in class. The point of noting this Hypothesis is brought to mind in the following scene where she references the problems of framing communication around a board game, making everything into a win-lose scenario, effectively making everything more dangerous. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs.studiobinder.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F03%2FArrival-Video-Essay-How-to-Balance-Fear-and-Intrigue-WP.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.studiobinder.com%2Fblog%2Farrival-movie-analysis%2F&tbnid=lYI_AyqcijQLKM&vet=12ahUKEwiqpvvFkJX5AhWon3IEHSaWDs0QMygFegUIARDoAQ..i&docid=ZRtX6nyNPLBzzM&w=1920&h=1080&q=arrival&ved=2ahUKEwiqpvvFkJX5AhWon3IEHSaWDs0QMygFegUIARDoAQ
In the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation we watched has much more to do with conceptual metaphors. In this episode, the gang’s trip is met with a group of people who, up till now have never been able to be spoken to. They attempt interaction and the captain is transported to their planet. Though I can’t concede to knowing entirely what was happening in that episode, by the end the Leader of the federations ship, understands that the other race’s language is wholly based on metaphors and imagery. They communicate wholly through making specifics general. This is clearly brewed in the concept of conceptual metaphor, which is defined as, “Helping us make what is abstract, concrete.” though during this episode it appears to have more of the opposite effect. What assisted me to understand the idea of their language better is their comparison of Romeo and Juliet. “The Tamarian Ego Structure may not allow what we think of as self-identity. Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery, a reference to individuals and places that appear in their mythos. It is as if I were to say to you, Juliet on her balcony..” This helps the audience to get a handle on what our two main characters of the episode are saying… yes. But also helps you build a better idea of how the language fundamentally works. We see the understanding most clearly at play, during which the captain has figured out the idea behind some of the phrases he has been repeating the entire episode. Eventually concluding it was about two people coming together. Not simply about those two people at the end of the day. Clearly referencing their own groups within this deep sorry of extended metaphor.https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fntvb.tmsimg.com%2Fassets%2Fp7896684_b_h8_aa.jpg%3Fw%3D1280%26h%3D720&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvinsider.com%2Fshow%2Fstar-trek-the-next-generation%2F&tbnid=ByrBEGP2vK4YYM&vet=12ahUKEwiqp8qwkJX5AhX3r3IEHbvTDCkQMygTegUIARCIAg..i&docid=2xooLp0DpzvIDM&w=1280&h=720&q=star%20trek%20the%20next%20generation&ved=2ahUKEwiqp8qwkJX5AhX3r3IEHbvTDCkQMygTegUIARCIAg
