How Much "Human" Language Does WALL-E Understand?

[vanessajoyce]

Obviously he knows the word "directive" . . . but how much of what WALL-E hears humans say does he truly understand? For example, when we see him driving past the advertisements in the beginning of the film, do you think he understands what the announcer is saying? Does he understand what the Axiom is and where all the people are? Related to that, do you think he can read "human"?

Please tell me what you think and provide examples from the film if you can think of some.

[MidgardDragon]

Hmm, I think he can read and understand some basic things, mostly related to himself. For example he's able to "sound out" WALL-E, so he knows what sounds the letters make. For directive, it may be something that all robots are programmed with so they can communicate their purpose to a human. I think for now we should assume all he actually knows how to say is "WALL-E", "EVE", "Directive", and "Woah". It seems he can easily learn new words, even if he doesn't pronounce them very well, though, so I imagine over the course of the however many years it takes to get Earth back on track, the humans may teach him some important words and phrases to help better communicate.

[Callandor]

ya "directive" is a thing in all robots, when you program a robot you put a thing in their system that makes them focus on their "directive". Its kind of like... hmmm.. i cant think of an example right now T_T

[Bubblegum]

I was wondering about the Rogue Robots scene...When the steward robots say "HALT!" he stops, but that could have just been because they were big, loud, and imposing, and not necessarily because he understood what they said. Also, when he's in the elevator with EVE, he points to the Rogue Robots screen, but it may have just gotten his attention because he recognized their pictures and not because he understood what "Rogue Robots" meant. When they find themselves surrounded by "Rogue Robots" signs WALL-E may have been scared not because of the signs but because he could tell that EVE was very angry with him...who knows? Maybe he DOES understand the phrase...

This is a great topic!

[Callandor]

Thats a good observation.
But like directive, Halt would be used in a robot's programmin, like an example would be halt or terminate, stop, shutdown, So natually when wall-e heard "halt" he knew he had to stop everything and pause, and for the rogue robot thing I think he was just excited to see him adn eev on a TV screen And eve was angry so he was scared. (i meen if you saw yourself on a tv it would be pretty excitin )

[Khodhum]

This is a very good question. I'd probably have to watch the movie again and specifically pay attention to this in order to really give a good opinion on this. If I were to just take a stab at it, I would guess that maybe WALL-E is like a young child: some words he can grasp, but he's still in the process of learning the language. For instance, he knows how to spell EVE's name just from hearing her say it (thanks to Bubblegum's sig for reminding me of this, lol), but I didn't get the feeling that he really knew what "rogue robots" meant. He didn't seem to be worried about it until he saw EVE's reaction. I don't know, it's hard to say.

[vanessajoyce]

When the steward robots say "HALT!" he stops, but that could have just been because they were big, loud, and imposing, and not necessarily because he understood what they said.

It's funny, because when I thought of this question last night, this was actually one of the scenes I thought of. And, just like Bubblegum, I didn't think it could prove that he understood the word. If I say "Gobbledygook!" to you while I'm putting a huge obstruction with lots of red hands palm up in front of you, you don't have to know what the word means -- you obviously get the idea.

And as I'm running through scenes in my mind, I cannot think of a single instance in which WALL-E would have had to understood the words being said by humans to "get" what's going on. In all cases I can think of, he's just following EVE and/or there's other things happening that would probably make it clear what was expected of him.

One scene in particular comes to mind that to me might indicate that he doesn't understand human speech: When we're on the Captain's deck, EVE is trying to find the plant (assuming WALL-E has taken it), she says "Plant!" to him. Okay -- he gets it -- she's looking for the thing he gave her earlier. (Not necessarily understanding the word itself.) So, we keep going through the scene -- EVE gets another scan -- Captain and Auto discuss the situation and agree the plant isn't there, "Probe must be defective", on and on . . . all this time, WALL-E keeps looking for the plant even though the conversations going on clearly indicate that everyone else has given up finding it. If he understood the conversation, my guess is that he would have stopped searching. Now, this isn't definitive -- it could be that is so determined to find the plant for EVE he just isn't listening to the conversation. But again, it's interesting to me that he doesn't stop looking until the Captain sees him, screams and diverts his attention.

I think he can read and understand some basic things, mostly related to himself.

That pretty much sums up the position I'd take at this point based on all the great comments so far. Any human words he understands would have to be words he can relate to himself as a robot or to his directive ("treads", "power source", "lift", "debris", "program") and any words that describe more complex and conceptual things ("impatience", "depression", "happiness") he probably wouldn't understand. Not that he wouldn't understood the concepts themselves -- only that if he tried to express those concepts he would do it in his own "language" -- the beeps, whistles and twitters plus any non-verbal communication he's picked up from "Hello Dolly" (dancing, holding hands, etc.) or other sources.

Again, just to clarify, I'm really focusing on WALL-E's situation before and during the movie. Like MD, I'm sure that WALL-E would eventually (post-movie) become fairly fluent in "human" simply by prolonged exposure to it.

[vanessajoyce]

Any human words he understands would have to be words he can relate to himself as a robot or to his directive ("treads", "power source", "lift", "debris", "program") and any words that describe more complex and conceptual things ("impatience", "depression", "happiness") he probably wouldn't understand. Not that he wouldn't understood the concepts themselves -- only that if he tried to express those concepts he would do it in his own "language" -- the beeps, whistles and twitters plus any non-verbal communication he's picked up from "Hello Dolly" (dancing, holding hands, etc.) or other sources.

Can't believe I forgot about this scene . . . .

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVRgfDSAGOA

. . . obviously WALL-E understands what "10 seconds to self-destruct!" means.

So, I guess I could be justified in allowing WALL-E, by default, to understand some human words that aren't necessarily directly related to his personal programming? Just trying to get a feel as to how far I could go in a story before I've broken character integrity.

[MidgardDragon]

Hmm, I wonder, since it was a machine that said those words, if there wasn't some base communication on some sot of wireless level or something. Although "self-destruct", too, seems like something that even basic robots would be programmed to recognize, to I dunno.

[vanessajoyce]

Yeah, I feel more comfortable with this take on it.

I just don't want to stretch the limits of WALL-E's default knowledge too much. One of the really charming things about him is that he is "child-like" in that his understanding of human things is very minimal. I don't want to even get close to anything sophisticated. I might be going overboard in trying to keep myself to strict definitions of what I can and can't do in a story, but I'd rather start really tough and loosen up only when I absolutely have to. If I say he understands a word or phrase, I don't want the reader to stop and think, "That doesn't sound like the WALL-E I know."

[MidgardDragon]

I've been thinking about this, and it seems that WALL-E truly seems to understand what's being said in most cases where we've seen him hearing human speech, as long as it was in English. Whether this is judged by context clues, or he actually fully understands most English and simply can't speak it, I'm not sure on, but for some reason the scene where he holds up the book after the whole speech about reading the manual comes to mind.

[vanessajoyce]

but for some reason the scene where he holds up the book after the whole speech about reading the manual comes to mind.

Yes, that's a scene I was watching pretty closely last night too. Again, it's really open to interpretation, I think. I could see both sides of the argument -- especially considering that short sequence where WALL-E gets the manual shoved at him and he holds it up for the Captain to take.

At this point I'm taking it word by word. If in the context of the story I really need him to understand a particular concept, I'm just thinking really carefully about what words would be appropriate and trying to keep it all "logical."

[vanessajoyce]

For instance, he knows how to spell EVE's name just from hearing her say it (thanks to Bubblegum's sig for reminding me of this, lol)

Woah . . . I thought so too, but just saw something that's making me rethink this assumption . . . you have to look really fast, but "EVE" is written on the side of the pod that she's stored in -- the one that breaks open to release her when we first meet her. Best shot is when the "arm" is tapping buttons on the front panel of the pod. Could WALL-E know how to spell her name from seeing it there?

[Bubblegum]

That's certainly a possibility, but wasn't the second E in her name written backwards? If he was spelling her name based on how he saw it spelled on the pod, shouldn't he have also written the E backwards? That is, unless he already has some alphabetical knowledge...

[vanessajoyce]

That's certainly a possibility, but wasn't the second E in her name written backwards?

Woah again. You're good. Yes, you're right -- it is backwards. (I was just so excited to find it since I had never noticed it before.) Hmmmmmm . . . . would WALL-E know how to "interpret" the backwards E? The geek in me says no, but the story person says yes.