Decoding the linguistic geekiness behind 'Arrival's' sci-fi sheen

Large-scale Hollywood films employ a wide range of consultants, from ER doctors to military experts to veteran constitutional lawyers. Rare is the big-budget adventure, however, that retains a linguist specializing in syntax, morphology, ergativity and nominalization. As moviegoers have turned out to see "Arrival" -- Denis Villeneuve's cerebral alien-invader adventure has grossed $50 million in two weeks of release -- many have been struck by the language symbols at its center. Those ornate, hollowed-out inkblots -- like Rorschach tests by way of "E.T." -- have distinguished the film from many science-fiction movies that came before. Very few nonhuman languages have ever been shown on screen in their written form -- let alone been made the center of sophisticated in-movie linguistic study.