Questões de Concursos UFRGS

The complex linguistic universe of

Game of Thrones

1.Game of Thrones has garnered 38 Emmy

2.awards for its portrayal of a world of sex,

3.violence and politics so real that some viewers

4.could imagine moving there. Part of that detail

5.has been the creation of the richest linguistic

6.universe since J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

7.In the field of language-creation for fictional

8.worlds, there is Tolkien, and there is everybody

9.else. But David Peterson, the language-smith

10.of Game of Thrones , comes a close second for

11.the amount of thought put into its two

12.languages, Dothraki and Valyrian. The interest

13.in these tongues is such that a textbook for

14.learning Dothraki has been published, while

15.Duolingo, a popular online language-learning

16.platform, now offers a course in High Valyrian.

17.Inspired by fictional languages such as those

18.in the Star Wars films and with a master’s

19.degree in linguistics, Peterson made Dothraki

20.and Valyrian as rich and realistic as possible.

21.Creating words is the easy part; anyone can

22.string together nonsense syllables. But

23.Peterson, like Tolkien, took the trouble to give

24his words etymologies and cousins, so that

25.the word for “feud” is related to the words

26.“blood” and “fight”. To make the languages

27.pronounceable but clearly foreign, he put

28.non-English sounds in high-frequency words

29.(like khaleesi , or queen), put the stress in

30.typically non-English places, and had words

31.begin with combinations of sounds that are

32.impossible in English, like hr .

33.Armed with a knowledge of common linguistic

34.sound changes, he gives his languages the

35kinds of irregularities and disorder that arise in

36.the real world: High Valyrian’s obar

37(“curve”) becomes Astapori Valyrian’s uvor .

38.Words’ meanings—as in real life—drift, too,

39.giving the system more realistic messiness.

40.Languages also play a prominent role in the

41.storyline. Dothraki is the guttural language of

42.a horse-borne warrior nation, but high-born

43.Daenerys Targaryen does not look down on it;

44.methodically learning it is key to her rise.

45.Tyrion Lannister is left to administer the city

46.of Mereen despite his ropy command of

47.Valyrian, leading to some comic moments.

48.And a prophecy of a future hero acquires new

49.meaning when an interpreter explains that the

50.word in question is ambiguous in Valyrian—it

51.could be “prince” or “princess”.

52.It might seem odd that a highly sexist society

53.like the one of Game of Thrones would have

54.languages where sex roles were not clearly

55.marked, but languages are not always perfect

56.vehicles for a culture. Random change can

57.leave them with too many words for one

58.concept, and not enough for another. In this

59.way, the flawed nature of language reflects

60.the foibles of flawed humans and the

61.imperfect worlds they strive to create.

Adaptado de:

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Acesso em: 21 nov. 2017.

1......... September 11, 2001, at 8:46 A.M., a

2.hijacked airliner crashed into the north tower

3.of the World Trade Center in New York. At

4.9:03 A.M. a second plane crashed into the

5.south tower. The resulting infernos caused

6.the buildings to , the south tower

7.after burning for an hour and two minutes, the

8.north tower twenty-three minutes after

9.that. The attacks were masterminded by

10.Osama bin Laden in an attempt to intimidate

11.the United States and unite Muslims for a

12.restoration of the caliphate.

13.9/11, as the happenings of that day are now

14.called, has set off debates on a vast array of

15.topics. But I would like to explore a lesser-

16.known debate triggered by it. Exactly how

17.many events took place in New York on that

18.morning ........ September?

19.It could be argued that the answer is one.

20.The attacks on the two buildings were part of

21.a single plan conceived by one man in service

22.of a single agenda. They unfolded ........ a few

23.minutes and yards of each other, targeting

24.the parts of a complex with a single name,

25.design, and owner. And they launched a

26.single chain of military and political events in

27.their aftermath.

28.Or it could be argued that the answer is two.

29.The towers were distinct collections of glass

30.and steel separated by an expanse of space,

31.and they were hit at different times and went

32.out of existence at different times. The

33.amateur video that showed the second plane

34.closing in on the south tower as the north

35.tower billowed with smoke makes the twoness

36.unmistakable: while one event was frozen in

37.the past, the other loomed in the future.

38.The gravity of 9/11 would seem to make this

39.discussion frivolous to the point of impudence,

40.a matter of mere "semantics," as we say, with

41.its implication of splitting hairs. But the

42.relation of language to our inner and outer

43.worlds is a matter of intellectual fascination

44.and real-world importance.

45.______ "importance" is often hard to

46.quantify, ........ this case I can put an exact

47.value on it: 3,5 billion dollars. That was the

48.sum in a legal dispute for the insurance

49.payout to Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of

50.the World Trade Center site. Silverstein’s

51.insurance policies stipulated a maximum

52.reimbursement for each destructive "event."

53.If 9/11 comprised a single event, he stood to

54.receive 3,5 billion dollars; if two, he stood to

55.receive 7 billion. In the trials, the attorneys

56.disputed the applicable meaning of the term

57.event. The lawyers for the leaseholder defined

58.it in physical terms (two s); those for

59.the insurance companies defined it in mental

60.terms (one plot). There is nothing "mere"

61.about semantics!

Adapted from: PINKER, Steven. The Stuff of

Thought. New York: Penguin, 2007. p. 1-2.

1......... September 11, 2001, at 8:46 A.M., a

2.hijacked airliner crashed into the north tower

3.of the World Trade Center in New York. At

4.9:03 A.M. a second plane crashed into the

5.south tower. The resulting infernos caused

6.the buildings to , the south tower

7.after burning for an hour and two minutes, the

8.north tower twenty-three minutes after

9.that. The attacks were masterminded by

10.Osama bin Laden in an attempt to intimidate

11.the United States and unite Muslims for a

12.restoration of the caliphate.

13.9/11, as the happenings of that day are now

14.called, has set off debates on a vast array of

15.topics. But I would like to explore a lesser-

16.known debate triggered by it. Exactly how

17.many events took place in New York on that

18.morning ........ September?

19.It could be argued that the answer is one.

20.The attacks on the two buildings were part of

21.a single plan conceived by one man in service

22.of a single agenda. They unfolded ........ a few

23.minutes and yards of each other, targeting

24.the parts of a complex with a single name,

25.design, and owner. And they launched a

26.single chain of military and political events in

27.their aftermath.

28.Or it could be argued that the answer is two.

29.The towers were distinct collections of glass

30.and steel separated by an expanse of space,

31.and they were hit at different times and went

32.out of existence at different times. The

33.amateur video that showed the second plane

34.closing in on the south tower as the north

35.tower billowed with smoke makes the twoness

36.unmistakable: while one event was frozen in

37.the past, the other loomed in the future.

38.The gravity of 9/11 would seem to make this

39.discussion frivolous to the point of impudence,

40.a matter of mere "semantics," as we say, with

41.its implication of splitting hairs. But the

42.relation of language to our inner and outer

43.worlds is a matter of intellectual fascination

44.and real-world importance.

45.______ "importance" is often hard to

46.quantify, ........ this case I can put an exact

47.value on it: 3,5 billion dollars. That was the

48.sum in a legal dispute for the insurance

49.payout to Larry Silverstein, the leaseholder of

50.the World Trade Center site. Silverstein’s

51.insurance policies stipulated a maximum

52.reimbursement for each destructive "event."

53.If 9/11 comprised a single event, he stood to

54.receive 3,5 billion dollars; if two, he stood to

55.receive 7 billion. In the trials, the attorneys

56.disputed the applicable meaning of the term

57.event. The lawyers for the leaseholder defined

58.it in physical terms (two s); those for

59.the insurance companies defined it in mental

60.terms (one plot). There is nothing "mere"

61.about semantics!

Adapted from: PINKER, Steven. The Stuff of

Thought. New York: Penguin, 2007. p. 1-2.