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

> ------------------------------
>
> 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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