Interesting theme to think about.
Language isn't just about how we communicate, it's about how we think. Words are but the containers of ideas and information and how we string them together is empowering ... and limiting.
Even between mutually influencing languages like English and French, there are ideas that, while commonplace in one, simply do not exist in the other. The expression of those ideas, or lack of it, influences their respective cultures.
This reality is why foreign travel (if you get out of the western hotels) is so valuable. It makes you realize that your assumptions about the nature of reality are just that, assumptions. Other cultures can see things in a dramatically different way and it is not always apparent that their way is worse.
One can only imagine then the differences, not just in the language itself but the ideas and information it expresses, if it were to be of extra-terrestial and non-human origin. All human languages contain syntax ... subject, verb, object (although not always in that order). Indeed, it's hard to imagine a language not containing them.
But then again, many foreigners cannot believe that English does not masculinize or feminize objects ... and Anglophones can't fathom why other languages do.
Would non-humans need subjects, verbs and objects? Maybe such things are merely a reflection of how the human brain thinks. If they didn't, would it even be possible to communicate with them?
And what about sensory information that is so important to human thought, and hence, speech. How does one explain the concept of "green" to a blind man? If the aliens had different senses, how could such information gap be bridged?
Bats have eco-location. Sharks have the ability to sense bio-electric fields. How would either of those senses be described to us if they could talk?
Quill