Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language is a collection of 17 papers on a variety of aspects of potential communication with aliens--how likely is it to happen, how would we recognize alien language if we came across it, what might it be like, and how could we interpret it. Also available from Amazon if you want to send me some sweet affiliate cash... or you could just take the difference in the Routledge and Amazon prices and send me a donation directly.
The short version: Some of the papers are better than others, and I don't agree with all of them, but that's probably a good thing--it means I'm not stuck in an echo chamber, and the collection shows a diversity of viewpoints on the subject. Overall, I have found it quite enjoyable.The long version:
General Thoughts
Not every paper is obviously useful for conlangers or authors, but several come with what I thought was solid conlanging inspiration, as well as good ideas for scifi writers to exploit about how alien languages might differ and actionable information about writing realistic contact and decipherment scenarios. The ordering of the papers was sometimes odd; for example, several of the papers refer to Hockett's Design Features, which are somewhat out of date and quite easy to critique (for example, asserting that language must occur in the audio modality, which ignores the entire existence of sign languages)--but Chapter 16 (third from the end) finally gets around to properly contextualizing them, and explaining the need to modify them to better apply to xenolinguistics. And it's formatted with endnotes. I mean, really--everyone knows footnotes are better!
Ch. 1: Introduction
Just a couple of pages to explain that, yes, we are aware that there are currently no actual aliens to talk to, but we find this to be a useful framing for generating questions about linguistic research. Consequently, many of the included papers are very explicit about trying to examine human language from an external point of view, or in terms of how we could expect human language to be different if altering certain specific parameters of environment or physiology in a controlled thought experiment.
Ch. 2: Many Ways to Say Things
The broad outlines are very much in line with my own thoughts on the topic--there are, indeed, many possibilities for encoding linguistic information for communication. It misses out on the fact that human language does sometimes use continuous analog encoding, and implicitly dismisses the sign-first hypothesis of language evolution. However, the idea that language might be enabled by the availability of a secondary sensory channel (i.e., humans mostly use audio languages because hearing is not as important as sight to most people, and thus there is extra attentional capacity available) is intriguing.
Ch. 3: Intentional Signals
Investigates the utility of a Gricean framework for identifying, as a prerequisite to decoding, non-human continuation--and points out the weaknesses! E.g., that Griceanism implies that human toddlers are incapable of "intentional signalling", because they lack a theory of mind--and any theory that requires us to evaluate the psychological modelling capability of another being's mind before deciding whether or not they are "really" using language is not particularly useful as-is. This article has made me think that an improved understanding of the diversity of human linguistic psychology is a necessary prerequisite to interspecies communication--the neurotypicals will never manage it on their own.
Ch. 4: Getting out of Our Skin
A short paper with an important insight: we should look at interspecific communication on Earth for ideas about how to communicate with aliens. Apparently, creating an inter-species pidgin is far more common than adopting another species' existing native communication system--a feature which is represented in Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary!
Ch. 5: Communicative Resources Beyond the Verbal Tier
Extreme TL;DR: Aliens won't understand how our physical bodies relate to our use of language, and we won't understand theirs, so we'll have to actually think about that explicitly. You should read this paper, because I can't do it justice.
Ch. 6: How Studies of Communication Can Inform SETI
Cites ways in which animal communication systems differ in how they encode information compared to human speech (thus, we should look out for these features in alien signals), and describes a procedure for training birds to respond to human speech, which could be adapted as a basis for establishing communication with aliens. Reminded me of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy, which hinges on the fact that no one bothered to check if the Fuzzies used speech outside the human audio range.
Ch. 7: Patterns of Communication of Human Complex Societies
I kinda bounced off this one. It seems to be saying that we just need a better understanding of communication in general, and how different communication systems evolve with the environments in which they are used. There might be more to extract from it, but it'll take a few more reads to puzzle out.
Ch. 8: Interstellar Competence
Catalogs the minimum features we can expect to have in common with any aliens with whom we could communicate over interstellar distances, and how humans can control our responses to maximize success in the absence of any additional information about the aliens themselves.
Ch. 9: Why Do We Assume That We Can Decode Alien Languages?
We have yet to decode a single complex animal language, and even lost human languages are Really Hard--sometimes impossible. So, we're gonna have to get real lucky to have the kind of shared context necessary to give meaning to alien signals.
Ch. 10: Xenolinguistic Fieldwork
This was the reason I bought the book! I read a draft of this paper before publication, and I needed to see what the rest of the volume was about. I may be biased, but this was the best chapter--it certainly has the most useful information for authors thinking of writing about alien contact. Claire Bowern, author of Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide, explains the basic components of fieldwork and how they will need to be adjusted for working with aliens. We are terribly unprepared for this, partly due to lack of, e.g., off-the-shelf recording devices for signals humans can't perceive, and partly because we are not actually that good even at documenting human languages yet. We need much more investment in tools and training.
Ch. 11: Investigating the Foundations of Meaning in a Xenolanguage
Provides an overview of all of semantics (but not pragmatics!), and which components of semantic models might be assumed to be not-just-human universals. This article specifically notes the inadequacy of the Swadesh list for bootstrapping alien vocabulary as it is rooted in human embodied experience, and highlights how differences in alien psychology may affect their conceptions of semantics.Ch. 12: A Linguistic Perspective on the Drake Equation
Since we don't have data to answer the question, let's focus on better defining the question itself. What factors influence the probability that we could talk to aliens? Unlike Chapter 2, this article recognizes the possibility of non-discreteness (in human SLs). More intelligent aliens may have metalinguistic structures we haven't thought of.
Ch. 13: Cognition, Sensory Input, & Linguistics
A controlled gedankenexperiment in how different sensory abilities might influence language, written by a blind author. The key assumption seems to be that lack of sight may lead to encoding more spatial information, outsourcing the gathering of such information to the collective sensorium of the speaker community. Kinda reminded me of the Deaf concept of "Eyeth" which I was introduced to in Sara Nović's True Biz. This is a solid source of conlang inspiration, although I wonder about the assertion that there are no human languages with specialized terms for the sonic properties of spaces or specific timbres. Seems like a question for Asifa Majid.
Ch. 14: The Design Features of Extraterrestrial Language
Basically just lays out the size of the problem, without solutions. Lots of potentially useful references, though. Maybe there's more here, but the tone of the writing makes me disinclined to spend a lot of time on it.
Ch. 15: Universal Grammar (The Chomsky Chapter)
Argues that universal mathematical principles mean that alien languages will work like human languages... but the convergent similarities being argued for are so Minimal as to be essentially useless for recognition or analysis, and the authors even admit that they are not considering the "externalization system" (i.e., the actual observable parts of language used for communicating) before dismissing understanding it as a mere "engineering problem". I'm not really a fan of modern Chomsky to start with, and this kind of paper is why. This YouTube video is referenced in the endnotes.
Ch. 16: Where Does Universal Grammar Fit in the Universe
Properly contextualizes Hockett's design features! And significantly improves on chapter 15 by arguing for the possibility of more significant convergent structural similarities between human and alien languages due to common "third factors" (i.e., shared physical and information-theoretical constraints). If you just want to read one of the two, read this one, not Chomsky's. Got some neat ideas about different ways alien linguistic cognitive could conceivably be limited compared to humans'. I will be mining this chapter for sci-fi linguistics ideas.
Ch. 17: Learning & Adaptation of Communication Systems
Investigates the effects of physiological and environmental variations of the acoustic output of human-like vocal systems, and argues that 1) alien language systems must have a learning component to account for natural variations in these parameters, and 2) aliens who are unrealistically similar to humans may nevertheless communicate with signals whose acoustic forms are unrecognizable to us.
Ch. 18: Writing Systems & METI
Discusses the design of messages to extraterrestrial intelligences, and argues that writing systems themselves are a valuable source of information about humanity. (Also, aliens might not have alphabets--we're special that way!)
Overall, my recommendation is positive. It's not a perfect book, but it's got some good stuff in there. However, my purposes might not be yours, so I have tried to give an overview of each chapter that will let you evaluate whether or not this collection will be useful to you.
If you liked this post, please consider making a small donation!
No comments:
Post a Comment