February Contemplations

Last week, I had the chance to watch the movie Arrival again, a 2016 thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve, which happens to be my favourite film. While the title and poster lead the audience to expect a typical science fiction movie about aliens and their conflict with humans, the central theme of the film is actually linguistics. It explores topics that are usually confined to academic books or research papers, offering an original and intellectually captivating experience to the viewers.

To start, I found the movie's fundamental plot fascinating. I have always wondered how humans would be able to communicate with other species in an unknown language, especially without the help of our beloved Google Translate or DeepL. 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 patterns, context, and relationships. In fact, the authenticity of Amy Adams’ portrayal of a linguist is largely due to the guidance of Dr. Jessica Coon, a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at McGill University, who was hired as a consultant for the movie. This precise and engaging depiction really gave me insight into what linguistics fieldwork 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 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 nonlinear, 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 immense joy but also extreme pain, would you still choose to make it? Or would you try to prevent the resulting events from unfolding? 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 along the way, 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 eventually create meaning.

Credit: Sean Wagner-McGough (The Long Shot)