Nikita
Unlike speech, a logogram is free of time Hello. In the movie called Arrival (2016), linguists all around world are studying an alien language. A US scientist says: "There's no correlation between what a heptapod says and what a heptapod writes. Unlike all written human languages, their writing is semasiographic. It conveys meaning; it doesn't represent sound. Perhaps they view our form of writing as a wasted opportunity, passing up a second communications channel. We have our friends in Pakistan to thank for their study of how heptapods write. Because, UNLIKE SPEECH, A LOGOGRAM IS FREE OF TIME. Like their ship or their bodies, their written language has no forward or backward direction. Linguists call this non-linear orthography." Just in case, here's examples of their writing: https://conlang.stackexchange.com/questions/53/is-the-alien-writing-in-arrival-really-a-language-can-we-form-custom-sentence Perhaps, this question might sound silly to you, but could you, please, tell me what the sentence set in all caps means?
Nov 6, 2018 8:10 AM
Answers · 8
1
Good morning! It means that logograms are not like (not like = unlike) speech, and I assume what they mean here, is that there are no tenses; in other words, there is no present, past or future tense expressed in the written language of the heptapods. Hope you have a good day!
November 6, 2018
1
I think they're just making up nonsense to make it sound 'amazing' or something.. I remember laughing out loud when I saw that movie in the cinema. The guy asked the alien a question, then asked the 'linguist' to translate the answer!! It couls have been 'yes/'no'/'I don't understand'/'please repeat that'/'who are you?' or anything!.. really stupid. They are saying that the pictures don't have any past/present/future in them, but that doesn't seem to make sense unless they can understand when things happen from the pictures in another way - or they are not useful for normal communication -just feelings or ideas!
November 6, 2018
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