Alien Interpreters: How Linguists Would Talk to Extraterrestrials

In the upcoming sci-fi drama "Arrival," several mysterious spacecraft touch down around the planet, and humanity is faced with how to approach—and eventually communicate—with these extraterrestrial visitors. In the film, a team of experts is assembled to investigate, and among the chosen individuals is a linguist, played by actress Amy Adams. Though the story is rooted in science fiction, it does tackle a very real challenge: How do you communicate with someone—or how do you learn that individual's language—when you have no intermediary language in common?
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