| SIGHTINGS | |||
| SAPIR-WHORF HYPOTHESIS | |||
| ENTRY LOG | |||
| UPDATES | ENGLISH-HEPTAGRAM CONVERTER | ||
Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.
A theory developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf that states that the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken. See also: Linguistic Relativity
Dr. L. Banks 22:45
Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together, and it is the first weapon drawn in a conflict. It's been months as it seems my attempts to teach the heptpodes basic English have been a complete failure.
Human. I say 'I am human'.
They reply with the symbol for human but with a curly part on the end. Ian thinks it might be their way of posing a question. Unlike all human written language, their writing is semasiogrfica. It conveyes meaning, it does not represent sound. Because unlike speech, a hologram is free of time. Like their ship or their bodies, their written language has no form or no direction.
Is this how they think?
Imagine you wanted to write a sentence using 2 hands, starting from either side. You have to know each word you wanted to use, as well as how much space they will occupy. A heptpode can write a complex sentence in two seconds effortlessly.
