Quotes about language from “Dune” by Frank Herbert

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Disclaimer: this is gonna be a nerdy one!

Dune

I’ve just finished reading Children of Dune, the third science fiction novel of Frank Herbert’s  Dune series of six novels – the first two being Dune and Dune Messiah. No need to say, I loved it! With the movie Dune Part 2 coming out next year, I guess you already know a few things about what the story is about, but here is a very brief overview.

Dune, set in a distant future where computers are banned but humans have developed advanced mental and physical abilities, centres on the story of Paul Atreides, whose noble family is forced to move to Arrakis. This planet, also known as Dune, is an inhospitable desert wasteland. There live the Fremen, who have adapted their way of life to survive despite the incredibly harsh conditions of Arrakis. There, Paul and his descendants will fulfil their destiny.

What Dune has to say about language

This being a blog on linguistics, however, I’ll spare you the nerdy sci-fi stuff and report a few quotes from the first three books that strike me as being very much language-related:

“Are my visions no more than hallucinations?” Paul asked, mock sadness in his voice. “Or do you imply that my worshippers allucinate?” […] “You twist my words, Sire”, Edric protested. […] “But you accuse me of conspiring to make a god of myself,” Paul said, pitching his voice that only Edric and Stilgar might hear. “Conspire?”
“A poor choice of words, perhaps, my Lord,” Edric said.
“But significant,” Paul said. “It says you expect the worst of me”.

Dune, p. 129

“You know the ancient tongues then?” Mapes asked, and she waited with an odd intensity.
“Tongues are the Bene Gesserit’s first learning” Jessica said.

Dune, p. 859

Mentat computation remained finite. You couldn’t say something boundless within the boundaries of any language.

Dune Messiah, p. 135

“I don’t speak”, Bijaz said. “I operate a machine called language. It creeks and groans, but is mine own.”

Dune Messiah, p. 338

Ganima hesitated a moment to form her thoughts. Then: “In that time, mourning for the sibling, it must be exactly real – even to the making of the tomb. The heart must follow the sleep lest there be no awakening”. In the ancient tongue it was an extremely convoluted statement, employing a pronominal object separated from the infinitive. It was a syntax which allowed each set of internal phrases to turn upon itself, becoming several different meanings, all definite and quite distinct but subtly interrelated.

Children of Dune, p.112

In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gran and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things, to confuse the simbolized system with the tangible universe. In the maintenance of such a power structure, certain symbols are kept out of the reach of the common understanding […] Symbol-secrecy of this form leads to the development of fragmented sub-languages , each being a signal that its users are accumulating some form of power. With this insight into a power process, our Imperial Security Force must be ever alert to the formation of sub-languages.

Children of Dune, p. 299

The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion, Duncan. Why do wish words with me?

Children of Dune, p. 341

In sum

It turns out that Dune has a lot to say about language! From how naming something guides the interpretation of the utterance in certain directions (as long established in Speech Act Theory [Austin 1962]), to how words can be means of deception and manipulation (Hardaker 2013), as well as symbols in which the power relations between speakers or their respective groups are actualised (Bourdieu 1991).

That’s it (for now – still three books left in the series and, hopefully, other language-related episodes to quote!) 📚

References
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Polity Press.
Hardaker, C. (2013). “Uh. . . . not to be nitpicky,,,,,but…the past tense of drag is dragged, not drug.”: An overview of trolling strategies. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 1(1), 58–86. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.1.1.04har
Herbert, F. ([1965]1990). Dune. Ace.
Herbert, F. ([1969]2019). Dune Messiah. Ace.
Herbert, F. ([1976]2019). Children of Dune. Ace.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremen#:~:text=The%20Fremen%20%2F%CB%88fr,the%20all%2Dimportant%20spice%20melange
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)