3.5. Syntactic Transformation Syntactic transformation refers to the transformation of the grammatical structure of the source text
in the dubbed translation, such as transformation of an affirmative sentence into a negative sentence or
an interrogative sentence, transformation of the active voice into passive voice and transformation of a
simple sentence into a compound sentence, etc..
Example 5: Guy: I'll take that chance.
Grug:
You know, I wanted to throw you away ever since I met you.
In example 5, when the Croods and Guy are about to arrive at their new home, an earthquake causes
a deep ravine on their way. Grug plans to throw all of the other members across the ravine because it is
the only chance to survive. Guy volunteers to be the first one to be thrown, and Grug uses the discourse
marker “you know” to maintain the on-going interaction. As is mentioned above, “you know” can be
used to attract attention and appeal to shared knowledge. It can also be used to invite inference and save
face. In fact, Grug’s relationship with Guy is not good, but Guy is willing to be the first one to be thrown
to the unknown danger, which changes Grug’s attitude towards Guy and improves their relationship.
Grug uses the interaction marker “you know” to develop common ground with Guy and show their
intimacy.
In this case, “You know” is transformed from an affirmative sentence into an interrogative sentence
“Do you know?” in Chinese, which has a weaker tone than its literal translation and fully conveyes the
speaker’s attitudes and intentions. The dubbed translation facilitates communication between the
interlocutors in the dubbed text and sounds more natural in the target language.
Frontiers in Educational Research
ISSN 2522-6398 Vol. 6, Issue 1: 139-143, DOI: 10.25236/FER.2023.060122
Published by Francis Academic Press, UK
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