Star Trek: The Next Generation1987

Lt. Commander Data:
Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery, a reference to the individuals and places which appear in their mytho-historical accounts.

Counselor Deanna Troi:
It's as if I were to say to you... "Juliet on her balcony".

Doctor Beverly Crusher:
An image of romance.

Counselor Deanna Troi:
Exactly. Imagery is everything to the Tamarians. It embodies their emotional states, their very thought processes. It's how they communicate, and it's how they think.

Commander William T. Riker:
If we know how they think, shouldn't we be able to get something across to them?

Lt. Commander Data:
No, sir. The situation is analogous to understanding the grammar of a language, but none of the vocabulary.

Doctor Beverly Crusher:
If I didn't know who Juliet was or what she was doing on that balcony, the image alone wouldn't have any meaning.

Counselor Deanna Troi:
That's correct. For instance, we know that Darmok was a great hero, a hunter, and that Tanagra was an island. But that's it. Without the details, there's no understanding.