BEFORE PEOPLE COMMENT! This is not just limited to archetypes, characters, blah blah blah that are called plot devices in the literary sense. This means anything that can be used to spawn or move a plot along. Especially things people take as a given, or that just get neglected and not used or mentioned all the bloody time.
This one is mostly for Sci Fi. In Science Fiction anything, people always end up speaking the same language for sake of story, and its assumed that the reason is because of a universal translator (or it is flat out mentioned every time it fails at its job, which happens almost every season, Star Trek.)
Simply put, language is the plot device I want to mention. A universal translator is just the easiest way for language to become a plot device. Think about all the ways it could go wrong, or be sabotaged to cause great destruction. Think of how much people would have to work to work around it (realize, with universal translators, almost the only use for living translators would be legal documents, and we know how much people dealing with law/lawyers are trusted.) Think of the riots (and hilarious dialogue) that could be caused if instead of just disabling the translators, a computer virus played with the vocabulary, either adding colorful language, or confusion and completely random words that don't belong in a sentence ("And I said to my second-grade concubine, 'I wanted the Pax Romana, fish-strangler.' She smiled at me and said, 'Vomit-fouling warbler.") Just a lot of fun that I think would work.
This one is mostly for Sci Fi. In Science Fiction anything, people always end up speaking the same language for sake of story, and its assumed that the reason is because of a universal translator (or it is flat out mentioned every time it fails at its job, which happens almost every season, Star Trek.)
Simply put, language is the plot device I want to mention. A universal translator is just the easiest way for language to become a plot device. Think about all the ways it could go wrong, or be sabotaged to cause great destruction. Think of how much people would have to work to work around it (realize, with universal translators, almost the only use for living translators would be legal documents, and we know how much people dealing with law/lawyers are trusted.) Think of the riots (and hilarious dialogue) that could be caused if instead of just disabling the translators, a computer virus played with the vocabulary, either adding colorful language, or confusion and completely random words that don't belong in a sentence ("And I said to my second-grade concubine, 'I wanted the Pax Romana, fish-strangler.' She smiled at me and said, 'Vomit-fouling warbler.") Just a lot of fun that I think would work.