The 2016 movie 'Arrival' highlights the challenges of human-alien communication, focusing on a linguist's efforts to decode the heptapods' complex language. Interestingly, a field called xenolinguistics is emerging, fostering exploration into how humans might converse with extraterrestrials. With a small number of dedicated scholars, a recent workshop sought to examine the fundamental purpose of language and the potential forms of communication between species. Despite challenges posed by the unknown nature of alien life, understanding communication could benefit human language studies as well.
This field isn't large, with just 20 or 30 scholars participating in research, but it was the subject of a November 2024 workshop entitled Exploring Xenolinguistics.
Communicating with extraterrestrial life raises key questions: What is the purpose of language? This inquiry discusses human interactions and why we continue to communicate.
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