How do aliens in the story use language and communication styles different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
Humans communicate using the alphabet and words are pronounced through the sounds that the letter makes when placed in a certain order. The Aliens use a written language and are portrayed as a single logogram. This means that is written or pictorial symbol intended to represent a whole word. This is seen on our human world like in Chinese characters or egyptian writing. There is no alphabet but each individual image represents a certain meaning or message. Phonically, humans have an alphabet. Each letter is attached to a sound, but the aliens have a specific sound as a tone or frequency that a human cannot replicate. Which is why in the novel, the protagonist cannot replicate the sounds and rather uses speakers and microphones to communicate with them.
How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
There is a lot of body language that comes into play when communicating. That is why communicating over the phone and in person has a different effect since in-person, body language can express emotions that sound can not. For humans, body language and verbal language enhance our communication. For the Aliens, they do not have a specific or reoccurring position of the face or noticeable body parts to the human eye. This makes it more difficult to communicate with them since emotion or intent is less clear. They also do not have a sense of direction or specific physicality making it more difficult to communicate with them since their societal norms and understanding of life is completely different to ours. Logic is different to them making it that much harder to understand each other.
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