Sapir-Whorf in Science Fiction: Denis Villeneuve's Arrival

This present work is a qualitative research carried on through inferences that rise from a structural system of discourse analysis in film, with the main objective of finding the elements of semiotic discourse within the 2016 film Arrival and analyze the way in which these elements show linguistic determinism as proposed in the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. This was to be achieved through the use of Lauro Zavala’s model on film analysis (2003). Research was conducted in the fields of linguistics, semiotics and film analysis with the goal to benefit general audiences, film enthusiasts, linguistic professionals, and Film, Linguistics and English students. At the same time, the methodology used for this research can help audiences when they watch films similar to Arrival. Zavala’s method is a model of film analysis that looks to contribute to the systematization of ideas and interpretation of people who watch a movie; this, done through its 12-point system that can be used in its entirety, out of order or partially. This research is, almost in its entirety, linked to Linguistic Determinism, which is one of the most important and influential linguistics theories of the Twentieth Century. It can be concluded that Zavala’s method helped to identify linguistic determinism as a worldview in practice on the film, extreme the scenario for its practice, the editing of the film itself as a parallel to linguistic determinism, and how learning the alien language, Heptapod B, is presented as an advantage for humanity.