1.How do aliens in the story using language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
Human languages has a grammar and therefore a fixed order. Aliens’ oral language does not have a fixed order for either the words themselves or the components of the sentences, and changes order each time they are spoken. They also has many levels of center-embedding of clauses, while human languages generally do not have a particularly large number of levels.
In terms of phonology, because of the different articulatory systems, some of their phonetic differences may not be produced and distinguished by human organs.
Their spoken and written languages are two linguistic systems, not two manifestations of the same language like human languages, and are not one-to-one correspondences. All that the text uses is visual and has no connection to the spoken word. Their text has no back and forth (order) to speak of. The words are cooperative, inseparable, and jointly composed, and there is no way to extract a single, independent word from them. While human languages are mostly consist of independent words. The shape of the words in alien language changes according to the content of the sentence, eventually forming a complete sentence or paragraph.
From the level of communication, the language of aliens is about purpose rather than sequence, not about cause and effect. “They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all”(31). So cause and effect are intertwined for them, and the thought process is no longer a linear line of things that have a back and forth relationship, but becomes one in which all parts have equal importance and priority.
Thus, for aliens, they kind of know what they are going to receive when communicating. Language is not about exchanging thoughts, but is performative. They used language to actualize, to make things come true. They know the inevitability of things and choose to put their whole heart in.
2. How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
Our bodies are asymmetrical, so our language is also asymmetrical. Our bodies have different priorities, for example the brain is the highest priority and the hands may be more useful than the feet. Therefore, our communication also has priorities. Our words have accents, and we also use related words or subordinate clauses to emphasize the focus of a sentence.
Our body is also logical and sequential, from the most basic process of DNA composition, to the body’s circulation needs to follow the order from one organ to another, to the process of brain first to send instructions, and then the body to carry out the instructions. These processes are all sequential. So cause and effect and sequence are also important in our language. And because our brains cannot foresee the future or see the purpose at a glance, our thought patterns will not be performative, but will be inferential or experiential.
As for alien, their body is centrally symmetrical, each of the seven limbs has the same role, and there is no obvious joint. Therefore, all parts of the limb may be equally important. There might be also no priority and no fixed order for each part when the limb is executing instructions. This is also reflected in the fact that when communicating, there is no order or priority for the parts of speech. Instead, they are intertwined and form different parts.
Not only that, but they also have eyes in all directions, leading to the fact that “any direction might as well be “forward””(5). Therefore, their communication patterns are not sequential either, as which direction is the same.
Finally, perhaps their neural architecture or observation of dimensions is different from ours, leading them to have future predictability. So for them, both the application of things and language is just to perform, to implement, and to make things happen. So the meaning of communication is also different from that of humans.