February Contemplations

Last week, I had the chance to watch the movie Arrival again, which happens to be my favourite film. While the audience may expect a typical science fiction movie about aliens and their conflict with humans, this movie is actually very centred on linguistics. It extracts some topics that are usually confined to academic books or research papers and uses it to form the foundation of a truly unique watch.

To start, the movie's fundamental plot is fascinating to me. I have always wondered how humans would be able to communicate with other species in an unknown language when we don’t have Google Translate or DeepL to help us. Well, this is exactly what the movie explores: linguist Dr. Louise Banks, played by Amy Adams, is hired to communicate with aliens who have just landed on Earth and to understand their true intentions. I was captivated as I watched her slowly but steadily work towards comprehending their unique language, and was reminded of my own work deciphering NACLO problems, determined to find patterns in languages I have never even heard of before. She systematically identifies similarities and differences in the alien symbols, essentially performing fieldwork in syntax and semantics while incorporating pragmatics to infer broader intent. In real-world linguistic applications, meaning also cannot be determined solely from literal translation; it requires an understanding of broader patterns, context, and relationships. In fact, the accuracy of Amy Adams’ role as a linguist is thanks to the fact that Dr. Jessica Coon, a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at McGill University, was hired as a consultant for the movie. This precise and engaging portrayal really gave me insight into what fieldwork as a linguist can look like.

Next, the movie is able to creatively turn linguistic concepts into major plot twists. Allow me to elaborate. As Dr. Banks works to understand the aliens’ languages, she realizes from their writing that they perceive time differently than humans—they view it in a nonlinear, simultaneous manner, witnessing the past, present, and future all at once. This mirrors how even human languages handle time differently: some use verb conjugation to mark tense, while others use temporal adverbs. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is then introduced, which suggests that the language we speak shapes how we view reality and challenges the idea that cognition is universal. I had a real eureka moment when I figured out that I had been witnessing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in action from the very beginning of the movie, just without realizing it. All of the scenes of Dr. Banks with her daughter, both joyful and tragic, seem like flashbacks. In reality, they are flash-forwards. As Dr. Banks learns the aliens’ language, her perception of time becomes non-linear, allowing her to see the future. Hence, the audience essentially experiences this shift with her and is left to wonder: if our language affects our view of the world, what else could we discover if we change how we communicate?

Lastly, the film also carries emotional depth. Dr. Louise Banks’ newfound ability to see the future leaves her with the question: if you know a decision will bring both immense joy and extreme pain, would you still allow it to unfold? Or would you stop it before it begins? This dilemma arises directly from her acquisition of a new language, which makes it so interesting. The film, therefore, suggests that language doesn’t just help us communicate our experiences—it fundamentally alters our perception of them, influencing how we remember joy, anticipate loss, and navigate choices.

Overall, Arrival is a movie I would strongly recommend, in particular because of the linguistic insight it offers. It dramatizes the process of decoding an unknown language, capturing the analytical thinking required for linguistics, while suggesting that language and perception are inseparable. For me, the film reinforced the idea that linguistics is not simply the study of how we speak, but also of how we think and make meaning.

Credit: Sean Wagner-McGough (The Long Shot)