Story of Your Life

Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang is a story that focuses on the concepts of communication, language, and empathy. I really liked the story, the way it was written, and how the progression and storytelling method resembles the substance that is pondered upon in the novel, semagrams. As I was reading the story, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity with the content. After a quick Google Search, I found that this story is the basis for the story of the renowned sci-fi movie Arrival, a movie I am yet to watch, but one I know is highly regarded in its genre. 

As mentioned in the story, the alien’s language is divided into two forms of communication rather than one. Their spoken language, Heptapod A, is drastically different than any spoken human language. Their written language, Heptapod B, is a semasiographic language instead of a glottographic language. A semasiographic language system consists of attributing meaning to a given sign, and a combination of various signs can alter the meaning of the resulting message, similar to the writing system that ancient Mayans used to have and comparable to the language that emojis can convey. A glottographic language, on the other hand, is a writing system that attributes symbols to speech. 

The physical structure of our body may suggest to others that we communicate through our limbs, which certain people and cultures often do, or a bodily orifice to reproduce some sort of noise or utterance. Similarly, the physical structure of the heptapod may suggest to others that they communicate through their limbs, after all, they do have seven, or their singular bodily orifice.