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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: SF & Language - Minimums
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References: <01bc265a$a239f270$275ee8cd@sal9000> <5fldjl$4iv@van1s03.cyberion.com> <kedamono-0503972228290001@cnc096055.concentric.net> <33245638.62B9@nbcc.nb.ca>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 17:05:19 GMT
Lines: 64

In article <33245638.62B9@nbcc.nb.ca>,
Andrew Crisp  <mo036465@nbcc.nb.ca> wrote:
>Kedamono wrote:
>> 
>> There is also the possibility that it's impossible to communicate with
>> aliens, since our brains are hardwired for "human-style" languages.
>> Reading up on, and checking out a few documentaries on language
>> acqusition, humans are in a sense hardwired to learn a human language.
>> Creatures from Ross 234 IV would be hardwired to learn their own language.
>> There grammar, body language, tonal qualities, they may be so radically
>> alien, that it would be impossible to *speak* their language.
>> 
>> However, reading is a learned ability. So while no human tongue could hope
>> to twist around the sentence case/noun predicate structure of a truly
>> alien language, you can always learn to read one.
>> 
>With aliens, you've more to consider than alien sentence structure, but
>_mouth_ structure as well.  How many of you can reproduce the sounds of
>(say) a whale or a bluejay (the bird, not the baseball team :) without
>electronic assistance so that any _expert_ listener (such as a whale or
>bluejay) could not distinguish between you and the original?  Uh-huh, I
>thought not.  

But the mouth structure is the easy part.  As you point out, we can always
cheat using sound-synthesisers.  We were discussing the prospect that the
"language organ" of an alien race might be so different from our own that
we might not be able to parse their communication at all.

>_Listening_ is another matter; I expect that a good linguist could learn
>to understand a (spoken) alien language, even if he/she cannot speak
>it.  

This is certainly true, though, of the four major language skills (written
comprehension, written production, listening comprehension, spoken/signed
production), it's the second-hardest.

>A related question: assuming face to face contact, and an urgent need to
>establish communications, how long would it take for a human contact
>team to learn an alien language well enough for simple technical
>discussion?  In a story I'm writing, I'm assuming two months--is that
>too short?

It's really impossible to say, since it depends on so many factors.  How
"alien" are the aliens?  How "alien" is their language?  What is their
technology?  What is the nature (and frequency) or the contact?  Is this
the first alien language the humans have encountred (Note:  One need not
have encountred aliens to have encountred their language)?  Do their
methods of communication, if different from ours, resemble those of any
animals we've studied (octopi, dolphins, bees, etc.)?

Two months seems reasonable to me only if the language is *very* similar
to human language and there's a decent amount of friendly contact or
comprehensible broadcasts/recordings to study and you have a large crack
team working on it.  After all, consider how long it's taken to decipher
several ancient *human* languages--some of history's best linguists have
devoted their lives to this.  And they arguably had a lot more context
(i.e. the basic structures of human societies, the technological milieu of
the culture, etc.) to work from than humans observing aliens would.  How
can you decode a language if you don't understand the social structure?
The technology?  The physiology?
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
