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Re: OT<?>: Linguist Heros was Re: No pronoun, no article

From:J. K. Hoffman <ryumaou@...>
Date:Tuesday, October 21, 2003, 12:07
> ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 19:04:49 -0700 > From: Garth Wallace <gwalla@...> > Subject: Re: OT<?>: Linguist Heros was Re: No pronoun, no article > > JS Bangs wrote: > >> >> I read a book a while ago about a preternaturally gifted linguist who used >> his skills to learn an alien language and deliver Earth from the alien >> oppression. The title now eludes me, though. > > > Not sure, but the hero of the movie "Stargate" is a linguist. He learns > how to communicate with the slave-humans on the distant planet by the > usual movie-linguist "point-and-speak" method (apparently, the language > of the slaves is somehow only slightly different from ancient Egyptian). > > I don't recommend seeing it, BTW. It's pretty awful. Pretty effects though. >
Well, thank you everyone for digging up all the linguistics heroes for me! I'm afraid that _Aliens and Linguists_ had the information so buried that it was taking hours and hours to dig it up. I could have sworn there was a section that listed some heroes that were linguists all in one place, but I sure couldn't find it. And "Stargate" isn't *that* bad. Sure, there's a lot of mediocre, and even down-right bad, science, but once you set that aside it's a fun adventure story. I mean, the stargate is just a gimmick to get us to the alien culture. After that, it's all just an action movie with a little weak linguistics thrown in for fun. Now, the *series* has some really funky linguistics in it. *Nothing* seems regular about the languages they use there. Of course, I'm not a linguist, so I may be just perceiving it all wrong, but... Anyway, at least it has some use of conlangs, that aren't Elvish, on TV! Anyway, in spite of my inability to pull a list of linguist heroes from science-fiction from it, I highly recommend _Aliens and Linguists_, if you can find a copy. It's a little old, but there's nothing else more current that looks at the use of linguistics in science-fiction and fantasy. Thanks, Jim -- "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." -Chinese Proverb and The Motto of the Christophers http://www.christophers.org

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Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>