In Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, out November 11, linguist Louise Banks helps to make contact with extraterrestrial visitors. But if aliens did drop by, how would we say hi? Jessica Coon, an associate professor in linguistics at McGill University, Montreal, who consulted on the film, gives WIRED some tips.
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"It's always a good rule," says Coon. Then make them understand you want to exchange language. "A hard task in monolingual fieldwork situations is getting the other person to understand what you want. If I point at something, I first need you to understand that I want you to give me words."
To ask a question, you need not only enough vocabulary to ask it, but a big enough vocabulary to understand their response. "A common starting point might be things that are visible that you can point to," says Coon. "You can mime to actions and from there construct sentences."
"When you're dealing with learning a new language, context plays a big role in understanding intent," says Coon. For example: "Earth" in English refers to the planet, but also the dirt. To better understand, ask yourself: "Why is somebody saying this? What is the context they are saying it in?"
"[In human languages] if I figure out that the verb comes at the end of the sentence, I can make some educated guesses about other properties," says Coon. Also note what isn't being said. "I need to know not just what things are possible to say, but what things are impossible to say."
"We can expect certain patterns with human languages. Our cognition is set up in ways that allows babies to learn languages quickly. But when we encounter an alien language, we don't know anything about the common properties or cognitive processes." In short? "All bets are off."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
