This does not mean that English speakers can't distinguish between different shades of color in the same way Russian speakers can. A study by Jonathan Winawer shows that Russian-speakers are faster at differentiating between these shades of blue than English speakers. This distinction and treating shades of blue as separate colors go beyond our ability to describe them. Unlike English, the Russian language makes a clear distinction between lighter shades of blue ("goluboy") and darker shades ("siniy") - there is no generic word for blue in Russian. Though contentious, there is some support for the idea.Įnglish and Russian both use different terms to divide the color spectrum. It states that language, rather than being a means to express our thoughts and ideas, shapes the way we perceive and experience the world. The movie focuses on a particularly contentious hypothesis known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism. If you squint hard enough there is also Andrew Carnie's Syntax, and David Adger's Core Syntax. In case it was not obvious how heavy a role syntax plays in the movie, there are several more books on the subject. Picture of Noam Chomsky surrounded by other linguistic books on syntax. In so doing, both the book and movie explore some of the deeper philosophical questions in both physics and linguistics: Can we describe reality or is it merely a construction of our language? The Linguistic Easter Eggs In the process, she not only learns a new language but discovers how an alien species perceive space and time itself. To do so, she tackles this problem in the way any scientist does - by forming a hypothesis, testing it, and drawing a conclusion. The movie is based on Ted Chiang's short story, "Story of Your Life." In the movie, Louise must not only figure out the alien's intent but whether we can decipher their language so they can communicate with us. Louise Banks ( Amy Adams) faces in the sci-fi hit, Arrival. If we are visited by aliens, how do we communicate with them, assuming they can understand us? How do we discover their intent, and convince them we are a peaceful species? What exactly is the meaning of Arrival? But even when we do share a common language and culture, misunderstandings can happen. Assuming this other person shares a common language and culture, this should be easy (most of the time). We translate the thoughts inside our head into words that another person (hopefully) can understand. Costello is also, appropriately, the chattier of the two.Communication is one of the messiest things we humans do on a daily basis. Like his real-life counterpart, the alien Abbott (who often appears on the left) is actually a little taller and skinnier than Costello. In Ted Chiang’s original short story, the aliens are called Flapper and Raspberry, but the movie takes its alien-naming approach a little more seriously. Why do they call the aliens Abbott and Costello, anyway? Years later, Louise finally tells Ian that their daughter is going to die, and he isn’t ready to hear it: Louise explains to her daughter that the girl’s father left because he thinks she “made the wrong choice.” When Ian asks if Louise wants to make a baby, she agrees, despite the knowledge that she and Ian will both outlive their kid. Why does he leave her?īecause she knew even before they became a couple that their daughter would eventually die of an unnamed disease. Betty Birner, a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at Northern Illinois University, told Slate that while the language you grow up speaking can influence your worldview, learning a new language definitely won’t suddenly radically alter your perception of time: “It would be like learning Swahili and saying, ‘I completely see how the speakers of Swahili view plant life now.’ ”Īt the end of the movie, Louise says she realizes why her husband left her-or why he will leave her in the future. The hypothesis, which comes from the work of early 20 th-century American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, is already widely disputed in the world of linguistics, but the way the movie uses it is pure science fiction. The movie’s premise revolves around a theory of linguistic relativity called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which proposes that the language we speak reflects or shapes (depending on who you ask) the way we think. As Louise learns the language, she also begins gradually experiencing visions of her future, a sign that she too is beginning to experience time differently.Ĭan learning a new language really “rewire your brain”?Įr, not like this. Production designer Patrice Vermette designed the logograms to be circular, representing how way the aliens think about time cyclically instead of in a straight line.
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