The working title for this book, which as a linguist I had for a number of years, was ‘Language beyond Earth’. But it became clear to me after a while that it would not be possible to discuss language without also considering life, the framework in which it is embedded. If one is looking beyond Earth then any questions about language can only be sensibly addressed after one has ascertained if life on planets elsewhere might be possible, what this life might be like and at what degree of development. Hence the present title, ‘Life and Language Beyond Earth’.
This book contains information from five large branches of science: astronomy/astrophysics, evolutionary biology, palaeoanthropology, neuroscience and linguistics. My area of academic expertise, my professional comfort zone, if you like, is the last of these but the goal of the interdisciplinary approach I have adopted here has meant that these other areas have had to be afforded roughly equal weight. So, this book can be seen to be about life beyond Earth and language beyond Earth, with a clear link between the two. The rise of human language, and hence speculation about similar systems of communication on other planets, is closely linked to the story of evolution on our planet and the appearance of our species, Homo sapiens. Our knowledge of this story is constantly changing as new fossils are found and techniques for genetic analysis are developed. No doubt, this will render many things said here out of date before too long, meaning that what the book offers is a snapshot of what we know now (mid-2022) and how our knowledge might develop in future.
Not written primarily for scientists, this book avoids technical discussions of scientific matters as much as possible while providing enough information to understand the issues at hand. However, a certain amount of terminology is unavoidable. The scientific terms used in the book are explained throughout (with pointers to the relevant pages in the index) and many are also given short definitions in the glossary at the end. That way it is hoped that readers can understand all the issues and concepts discussed here even if they have had no contact with them before.
Some readers may wish to pursue matters dealt with in this book at a later stage. To this end, a list of general and of linguistic references is given at the back to help them on their way. The notes for each chapter contain additional information which might be of interest to some readers but which would interrupt the flow of the text if included in the latter.
A book like this, and the literature on exoplanets and possible life on them in general, is about scenarios which are at present completely hypothetical. There is a lot of speculation here, but it is worth asking questions, even though one does not yet have answers – the questions themselves can set us thinking in directions which could well be insightful, indeed beneficial, at a future date. Whether the hypothetical situations described here will change in the near to mid-term future it is not possible to say. Whether intelligent life elsewhere will be discovered is currently unknown and this book is not about making predictions concerning that issue. Rather it is a realistic consideration of how life and language arose on Earth and how this might happen or have happened on exoplanets. It is something which cannot be ruled out and hence it is, in my opinion, a rewarding enterprise to think about what life forms beyond our Earth might be like and whether we could in principle communicate with them. What I am submitting here is input from a linguist, providing a perspective on the issue of exolife which to date has not been offered in this form and which colleagues in other sciences will hopefully find useful as a complement to their own research.
When writing this book I got much valuable feedback from various people, especially from my colleague of long-standing, Prof. Laura Wright, who was interested in the project and supportive from the beginning. The publishers, Cambridge University Press, also commissioned several reviews, given the broad nature of the themes discussed. The anonymous reviewers were very helpful, especially ‘Reviewer D’, who read and commented on two versions and whose detailed feedback was invaluable while moving towards the final version of the book. During the production of the book, Isabel Collins, Stephanie Taylor, Ruth Boyes and Zoë Lewin provided much assistance and expertise. Last but not least, my thanks go to Rebecca Taylor, Commissioning Editor in Linguistics at Cambridge University Press, for her unflagging patience and continuous encouragement.
