Story of your life by Ted Chiang is a science fiction novella on which the film “Arrival” is based. The plot, narrated by linguist Louise Banks talks about how she gets to learn the language of the aliens while having flashback parts that describe her daughter just like she’s going back in time.
1. In the story, aliens use the language called “Heptapods”. What differs their language from human language is that they use separate ways of communication:
Heptapod A: their spoken language
Heptapod B: their written language
Moreover, they also use a semasiographic writing system and the only difference between a sentence and a paragraph was the size of the heptapod B. This also means, depending on the number of strokes, the thickness and the size, it can have various meanings.
2. Flapper and Raspberry in the story have a radially symmetric body that has 7 limbs as well as eyes. And because of their bodies’ symmetricalness, they have no forward direction and that’s why their writing also has no end or start. (You can read their word from any angle) Compared to them, we only have 2 legs and 2 arms. And maybe that’s why we use our hands and arms a lot as a way of communication.