However, I’d argue that the meme-language in Darmok is not the same as slang. Slang is functionally the same as regular language, with words having particular meanings. The whole point of Darmok is that their language doesn’t work like that.
It could probably translate some slang, but this type is context-basef, like Tamarian. We could assume a Federation translator would know that context, but who knows what knowledge was lost in the 21st century?
I might be misremembering, but I think the universal translator operates on a basis of reading “brain wave” ✨vibes✨ so it is more about intended meaning than disambiguation of denoted meaning by context, which is why I think it would pick the right word to translate even if the listener isn’t familiar with the contextual nuances… The listener is never familiar with those linguistic nuances.
For Darmok to work you kinda just have to accept that there’s something fundamental about word-denotative meaning based language and allegorical meaning. Of course it falls apart if you think to hard about the specifics 😂
It is definitely a nonsense machine.
However, I’d argue that the meme-language in Darmok is not the same as slang. Slang is functionally the same as regular language, with words having particular meanings. The whole point of Darmok is that their language doesn’t work like that.
It could probably translate some slang, but this type is context-basef, like Tamarian. We could assume a Federation translator would know that context, but who knows what knowledge was lost in the 21st century?
I might be misremembering, but I think the universal translator operates on a basis of reading “brain wave” ✨vibes✨ so it is more about intended meaning than disambiguation of denoted meaning by context, which is why I think it would pick the right word to translate even if the listener isn’t familiar with the contextual nuances… The listener is never familiar with those linguistic nuances.
For Darmok to work you kinda just have to accept that there’s something fundamental about word-denotative meaning based language and allegorical meaning. Of course it falls apart if you think to hard about the specifics 😂