Linguistics in Postmodern Science Fiction: Delany's Babel 17 and Stephenson's Snow Crash

As the late partner to science fiction, various experimental languages such as animal language, telepathic language, newly invented language, alien language often appear as "unexpected and frightened situations" in SF. Like generative semanticists, some SF writers daringly delve into the sacred mystery of semantics in language whereas others avoid the dream of a universal language by holding themselves to manageable data. Samuel Delany's description of the ideal telepathic universal language in Babel 17 shows us humans' dream to be like God by showing to us the new process of communication in the factual interplanetary environment. Similar to the mystery of alien language in SF, the baby's babbling reveals how language is both simple and complicated. Children's language shows us the changing process of a soul revealed by language use and it is no wonder that many languages of AIs in SF often borrow their source from children's language acquisition processes. In short, science fiction as the repository of tropes illuminates other literary language studies and other literary genres. Especially in terms of the futuristic study of linguistics, the relationship between science fiction and linguistics is much closer than we thought.