Arnold Schwarzenegger Didn't Want to Say "I'll Be Back"

In a now (I presume) famous interview, Arnold Schwarzenegger explained how he disagreed with James Cameron, the director of Terminator (1984), regarding what is arguably the most iconic line of the script. That's right - Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't want to say "I'll be back". His argument was simple: a machine from the future wouldn't "use an abbreviation", as he put it.

Now, let's not chide Arnie for not knowing the difference between an abbreviation and a contraction - we can allow one of the greatest American success stories a grammatical error every now and then, right? - but let's consider whether he was right to argue. He eventually conceded to "I'll be back", but he maintained that the line was 'stupid'. James Cameron's argument was straight to the point - read the damn script! Or words to that effect. This is a JC I can get behind.

Just to clarify, I've long been baffled by writers of Sci-Fi and Fantasy who purposely antiquate or 'archaize' their dialogue. Now, I get it when it comes to Fantasy - they want to give it a sense of otherworldliness or an exotic feel, or they simply want it to feel 'old' in the sense that Fantasy realms generally align with a perception of a long-forgotten time. This is usually where the humble contraction loses ground, as contractions are considered a step forward from an evolutionary point of view. Thus, 'reverse engineering' them takes one back in time.

I'm not here to argue that point, although I could be really pedantic about the credibility or authenticity of attempts at linguistic antiquation in Fantasy. A lot more has occurred over the centuries and changed the English language than the convenience of the apostrophe. Instead, I'm going to look the other direction in fiction - I'm going to look to the future.

Now, I'll allow a little slack here, because we're now fully in an age of AI and voice simulation and synthesization. Apple have recently launched their AI audiobooks program, and others will follow, so it really doesn't fly that a 'machine from the future' can't say can't, or doesn't, or I'll. Why would a machine taught to resemble us in its communication patterns arbritarily decide to 'deconstruct' contracted words? Would it think itself more intellectual to do so? Is the use of contractions a sign of lesser intelligence?

To extrapolate from this issue and move into Sci-Fi writing, why would an alien civilization learn to either speak or translate this one language on our planet - which is not the most widely spoken (first) language - and opt for a 'pre-contraction' dictionary to populate their database?

Why would humans in the future decide to throw away this seeming advancement in English in favour of the more stunted and less economical 'can not/cannot', 'does not', 'I will', and so on? Considering we live in a world where popular culture has reduced "I am going to" to "I'ma", I really don't think reversion to pre-contracted verbs is a reflection of future linguistic behaviour.

But hey, what do I know? I make all this stuff up!

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