Subject: linguistics in science fiction

content - length : 3073 the postings on linguistics in science fiction for the past couple of months have been interesting , but curiously limited to comparing two types or genres of writing as if all that is going on with linguistics in science fiction these days is that some writers who are sf novelists have been injecting a few ' neat linguistic ideas ' into their narratives and some ( distinctly other ) group of writers who are linguists read these stories for fun and like to point out the borrowed ideas to other linguists . thats not all that 's happening these days folks . it seems to me that some of the most interesting things going on with linguistics in science fiction is in the blurring of these and other genres ( a general phenomena that george steiner argued was well underway 20 years ago in his _ after babel _ ) . it does n't take much digging through my library to come up with some examples of writers who ' ply the frames ' of sf in ways that deserve to be read by linguists ' for serious ' . samuel r . delany 's novels have been mentioned on the list , but he has also published two volumes of linguistic essays , _ the jewel - hinged jaw : notes on the language of science fiction _ 1977 . new york : dragon press . and _ starboard wine : more notes on the language of science fiction _ 1984 . new york : dragon press . richard rorty , probably known by many linguists interested in the philosophy of language ( from his writing on the ' linguistic turn ' in that field ) , tells a science fiction story about a mid-twenty - first century expedition to antipodea , a planet where the natives lack the concept of mind as part of his argument about ' persons without minds ' in _ philosophy and the mirror of nature _ 1980 . suzette haden elgin is a third writer ( and a linguist ) who writes about science fiction ' for serious ' . one medium in which she does this is the linguistics & science fiction network , which publishes a newsletter ( $ 10 annual membership fee ) out of the ozark center for language studies ( p . o . box 1137 , huntsville , ar 72740 e - mail : ocls @ sibylline . com . ) . i ' m sure that there are other such ' blurred genre ' pieces at the interface between science fiction and linguistic theory . i 'd encourage other subscribers to describe them here in addition to the usual novels and short stories ( the serious stuff can be read ' just for fun ' too . . . ) . paul gracie
