Episode 115: Linguists Rejoice! A Movie about Language — Oh, it’s Aliens? Arrival (2016) With Jeff Punske

Join Alex and Dr. Jeff Punske as they explore the linguistic and cognitive aspects of Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi masterpiece, Arrival (2016). The film stars Amy Adams as Dr. Louise Banks, a renowned linguist, and Jeremy Renner as a renowned theoretical physicist. Together, they must decipher an extremely complex language from newly-arrived extraterrestrials, referred to as the heptapods. But as Louise begins to learn their language, she begins to experience time differently! Alex and Jeff explore the nature of cognition and language and discuss how the film uses the Sapir-Whorf hypotheses to explain how Louise ultimately experiences her life during this time and afterward… or was it beforeward?

Check out Jeff’s edited book, Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language!

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Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool (“Gemini”). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.

Episode Transcription

Go to this link to read a transcript generated by Whisper AI Large V3 Model. Disclaimer: It is not edited and may contain errors!