Miseon Yoon
English for International Conferences and Communication, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea
This study investigates how dubbing affects the functions of film dialogue by comparing the South Korean film The Host (2006) and its English-dubbed version. Using Kozloff’s categorization of dialogue functions as a framework, the study reorganizes dialogue functions into three categories: film diegesis, narrativity, and control of viewer evaluation and emotions. This regrouping allows a more focused analysis of the distinct but interconnected ways dialogue operates in both the original and dubbed versions. The findings reveal three key shifts. First, the English-dubbed version exhibits a weakened anchoring of diegesis, with references to culture-specific items including specific locations becoming less prominent than in the original Korean dialogue. Second, the narrativity of the film is translated more explicitly and coherently; ambiguous or implicit elements in the source dialogue are clarified to better serve the target audience. Third, the dubbing process heightens the control over viewers’ evaluations and emotions by incorporating appraisal language absent in the original, reducing ambiguity and making emotional cues more explicit. These results demonstrate that dubbing not only translates language but also actively alters the narrative structure. This shows that dubbing unavoidably alters essential elements of the original film’s diegesis, narrativity, and audience engagement. The study concludes that dubbing plays a significant role in modifying film dialogue functions.
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