Alien Structure

Possible Alien Languages

Alien languages are languages that use different kinds of semantic tools than any familiar languages use.

The Relationship Between Language and Reality

The question of the existence of alien languages is interesting in itself: what kinds of languages are possible? Attending to the issue of alien languages also problematizes the relationship between language and reality, and highlights the possibility that reality could have a fundamentally different structure than we otherwise take it to have.

Literature and Theoretical Perspectives

Despite the foundational significance of these questions, they have received virtually no explicit attention in the literature. The book brings up and criticizes existing contemporary work that promises to be at least indirectly relevant.

Main Claims and Possibilities

A main claim of the book is that alien languages are possible and that we should be alert to the possibility that reality has alien structure and is best described by an alien language. The book also raises other possibilities regarding this debate. Maybe we should not say that the world has either kind of structure but can be equally well described using either kind of languages.