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In order for free will to truly exist, then someone cannot know what will happen in their future. She wonders if the future is known, then if free will exists. Banks becomes fluent in Heptapod B, she notices that it changes the way that she thinks. In contrast, heptapods have a teleological view, in which they seem to know everything that happened and will happen at the same time.Īs Dr. Humans have a causal interpretation of the universe (in which everything is part of a never-ending chain of cause and effect). Banks that the heptapods do not see the universe as humans do. Banks to infer that "the heptapod had to know how the entire sentence would be laid out before it could write the very first stroke" (123). She discovers that when writing a semagram, they start with a single line that is integral to several different clauses in the sentence. Banks asks to watch Flapper and Raspberry write semagrams, in order to determine if there is a preferred word order in writing. This requires for the ray to have an understanding of what the fastest possible route is. This principle states that a ray of light will take the fastest possible route to its destination. Eventually, however, there is a breakthrough: the heptapods understand Fermat's Principle of Least Time. Banks makes advances in heptapod linguistics, the physicists are having less luck.
Banks learns to write in Heptapod B, but she is not yet fluent.Īs Dr. Additionally, every single line that makes up the semagram must be read together with the rest of the semagram. orientation or rotation) changes their meaning. They also learn that the way in which semagrams are written (i.e. Both of these features can be found in human languages. They discover that heptapod speech contains free word order and center-embedding of clauses. The linguists decode the grammar of Heptapod A. She realizes that the heptapod written and spoken languages are completely different languages and decides to refer to them as "Heptapod A" (spoken) and "Heptapod B" (written). This sign means "not allowed," but it does not correspond to any actual spoken words. Donnelly by drawing a circle with a line through it on a board. Banks realizes that the logograms should instead be called semagrams, because they are irreducible to spoken words. Banks subsequently realizes that the heptapod script is not separated into words instead, the words are brought together into a single image. However, in the written language, they are portrayed as a single logogram. Banks can differentiate the subject from the verb. In the spectrographs of the spoken language, Dr. Banks discovers that their written and spoken languages are unrelated when she moves on to learning about heptapod verbs. Donnelly nickname the two heptapods they communicate with "Flapper" and "Raspberry."ĭr. The heptapods use a logographic script, which means that they are not phonetically written. She begins to compile heptapod words-both spoken and written versions of the same words. She then moves on to studying heptapod writing, which she hopes will speed up her the learning process. Banks begins by recording spoken heptapod words, including "heptapod," "chair," and "yes." She uses audio recordings because she cannot make heptapod sounds herself, due to the fact that heptapods and humans do not have the same vocal tracts. Donnelly is tasked with learning about their physics and mathematics.ĭr. Banks is assigned the task of learning about their language, while Dr. Donnelly to a "looking glass": one of the communication devices that heptapods have placed at 112 different locations on Earth. At the beginning of the story, she is approached by a government official, Colonel Weber, and a physicist, Dr. Throughout the story, she narrates the events of her daughter's future life and recounts the arrival of a breed of aliens, referred to as "heptapods," on Earth. Louise Banks on the night her daughter is conceived.