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Change of Personal PronounsBog'liq aaaaaaaaa3.1. Change of Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns include first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns and third-person pronouns.
Change of personal pronouns means replacing one of three “persons” with the other two “persons” or
omitting the personal pronouns. When it comes to the translation of discourse markers, the second-person
pronoun “You” can be replaced by a first-person pronoun “I” and a first-person pronoun “I” can also be
omitted.
Let us take a look at an example.
Example 1: Grug: Make! Make it!
Guy:
You know, you’re a lot like your daughter.
In example 1, the young man Guy saves the lives of the Croods by lighting a torch to disperse the
birds. The torch arouses the curiosity of Grug and he violently urges Guy to make fire, which makes Guy
embarrassed in front of all the family members. Since Grug’s tone and action are much like his daughter,
Guy uses the discourse marker “You know” to draw attention and express the shared knowledge that
Grug is like his daughter. Schiffrin [5] believes that “you know” appeals to shared knowledge as a way
of converting an opponent to one’s own side in a dispute”. In this way, Guy can reduce his face threat.
What’s more, Stman [11] believes that "you know" can help establish friendly relations between the
speaker and the listener. In this example, Guy also uses "you know" to express goodwill and friendliness
to the elders.
In the dubbed text, the discourse marker "you know" is translated into "I say" in Chinese, which
reproduces the pragmatic function of seeking attention, saving face and expressing goodwill. The
translator changes the second-person pronoun into the first-person pronoun, which is more in line with
the Chinese language. If “you know” is translated literally, it will sound unnatural and awkward to the
audience.
3.2. Use of Sense Verbs
Sense verbs are verbs that describe one of the five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, such
as look, hear, listen, sound, smell, taste, feel and so on. Since audiovisual texts are expressed through
images and sounds, the target audience usually use at least two senses, i.e., vision and hearing, when they
watch the dubbed film. As a result, the translator can not focus on verbal discourse alone but match the
translation with the visual images and sound.
Example 2: Thunk:
Okay. Do not walk on your hands. The hands do not help at all!
In example 2, the Croods have to walk through some pointy rocks on their way to find a new home.
Their feet are hurt badly since they have no shoes to wear. Thunk tries to use his hands to walk on the
rocks but it doesn’t work. Thunk uses the discourse marker "Okay" to signify confirmation that walking
on hands does not help at all. "Okay" is a marker that demonstrates common understanding between the
participants and can be used to signify approval, acceptance and confirmation. It also functions as an
effective controlling device to dominate the behavior of others. In this example, after Thunk confirms
that walking on hands is of little help, he uses “Okay” to tell others not to walk on their hands. He gives
advice to help other family members avoid injury to their hands.
The translator does not translate "Okay" into its literal meaning, but adopts a sense verb “Listen” in
Chinese. The translation is not only synchronized with visual images and sound, but also more more
coherent with the utterer’s intention and the target linguistic tradition.
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