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
One thought on “Space and Linguistics”
Hi Olivia,
I really like your discussion Arrival in relation to frame shifting. The heptapods are likely operating with a very different—in fact completely alien—set of cognitive frames through which the construct meaning. (If they even have cognitive frames. We really have no idea how they construct meaning, what their cognition even looks like, or if we would even recognize it as cognition.) They also don’t have the cultural context to understand the difference between “give weapon” and “have weapon”—which as you note, for their human audience results in a significant frame shift. Also, your point about the frames that Mahjong entails is really important. We might think about how their communication with Chinese army might have been different had they communicated through a cooperative game.
I also really enjoyed reading your discussion of conceptual metaphors in Star Trek. As you learned in the VoiceThread, much of our language is based in metaphor, but we tend not to recognize many of those metaphor constructions as metaphor. In the Tamarian’s language, the metaphors are more evident. Also, it’s great that you address how their sense of self identity differs from that of those of the Star Fleet’s crew. Do you have any ideas about the connection between their metaphor system and how they conceptualize themselves? What might the relationship between them be?
Jessica Hautsch