In linguistics, one of the main areas of modern research involves the capabilities and possibilities of there being a "lingua cosmica," a LINCOS, a universal language that could be used to communicate with non-human intelligences. This book touches on the area of the development and use of a "lingua universalis" for interstellar communication, but it also presents concepts that cover a broad area of linguistics. Chomsky's paradigm on universal properties of natural languages, for a long time a leading general theory of natural languages, includes the strong assumption that humans are born with some kind of universals stored in their brains. Are there universals of this kind of language used by intelligent beings and societies elsewhere in the universe? We do not know whether such languages exist. It seems to be impossible to determine, simply because the universe is too large for an exhaustive search. Even verification will be hard to obtain, without quite a bit of luck. This book uses astrolinguistic principles in message construction and is helpful in clarifying and giving perspective to discussions on existential questions such as these.

Preface.- Preliminaries.- History.- Part I: Calculus of Constructions.- Chapter 1.1: Types and declarations.- Chapter 1.2: Functions and induction.- Chapter 1.3: Hypotheses.- Chapter 1.4: Higher orders and inductive structures.- Part II: Facts.- Chapter 2.1: Simple Facts.- Chapter 2.2: Compounds.- Chapter 2.3: Aristotelian Theatre.- Chapter 2.4: Wittgenstein's Theatre.- Part III: Annotations in LINCOS.- Chapter 3.1: Logical contents of texts.- Chapter 3.2: An astrolinguistic experiment.- Chapter 3.3: Aspects of truth.- Chapter 3.4: Human altruism.- Part IV: Interpretation of LINCOS.- Chapter 4.1: Self-interpretation.- Chapter 4.2: Pictorial representation.- Chapter 4.3: Representation of music.- Chapter 4.4: Signature of LINCOS.- Part V: Processes of LINCOS.- Chapter 5.1: Representing processes.- Chapter 5.2: Cooperating sequential processes.- Chapter 5.3: Hamlet in LINCOS.- Part VI: Symbolic Computation.- Chapter 6.1: Basics.- Chapter 6.2: Relativistic particle motion.- Chapter 6.3: Two-body motion.- Part VII: (Un) Certainty.- Chapter 7.1: Certain existence.- Chapter 7.2: The uncertain alien.- Appendix.- Postscriptum.- Summary in Russian.- Declaration of Principles.- Curriculum Vitae.- Index.