- How do the aliens’ language and communication styles in the story differ from human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
Oral: The aliens use Heptapod A to speak. The aliens speak all the words at the same time and the words do not have orders. However, humans speak in order.
Pictographic: The aliens use Heptapod B to write. They write sentences by joining the logograms for the constituent words and sticking together as many logograms as needed. They use a nonlinear system of orthography. They also have a visual syntax for the sentence composition and the inflection system. However, human
Phonetic: The aliens’ language is semasiographic. The sound has no correspondence with any components of writing. However, human written languages are glottographic, which can represent speech.
- How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
We human-beings: We have vocal cords to speak, and we use body languages such as gestures and facial expressions to help us communicate. We can also write to communicate with others.
The aliens: They have seven limbs and they insert one of the limbs into a large socket in the pedestal to write. In addition, Their bodies are radial symmetry, so their bodies have no ‘forward’ direction. Thus, their writing doesn’t have directions and can be read no matter how they are rotated.