Azerbaijani quantities and Sesotho noun-class agreement
A target noun can organise agreement around it
Azerbaijani nouns and predicates encode grammatical relationships through their own suffix patterns. Sesotho noun classes instead organise agreement across several parts of a phrase or clause. A source count or case ending does not supply a universal target class marker.
Demuth’s research illustrates “bana”, children, with matching class-two subject marking on the predicate. The target can therefore repeat grammatical class information across the clause without adding another group of children to the source message.
For an Azerbaijani statement about children carrying something, establish their number and action first. Then inspect the target noun and predicate together. Recognising the translated child word alone does not prove that the rest of the clause describes the same participants.
The described object controls its own modifier
The same research uses “lebese”, milk, with an agreeing modifier in a fresh-milk description. The object’s class belongs to that noun phrase, independently of the human class associated with children in the subject.
Azerbaijani does not assign matching Sesotho noun-class labels to every source item. If a request mentions children and food, a target adjective should not acquire the human agreement pattern merely because the people occur earlier in the sentence.
Determine which source noun each property describes. A message asking for fresh food differs from one describing new helpers, even where similar adjective meanings appear in a vocabulary list. The target agreement should preserve the intended attachment.
Plural morphology can count varieties rather than containers
The research describes “mabese” as a plural reading involving types of milk. The noun’s target number form does not automatically express the same quantity as a source count of bottles or litres.
For an Azerbaijani shopping list, distinguish the substance from its containers and from kinds of the substance. A request for two bottles should not turn into two varieties simply because a plural target noun is available.
Keep each source quantity with its unit. The target numeral, noun and agreement need to form one coherent request. A correct number by itself cannot establish whether the intended purchased entity has survived.
Respect does not assign a lexical class
Azerbaijani siz can politely address one person or refer to several people. The source social relationship is separate from the Sesotho lexical class and actual number of each participant. A respectful listener should not become a group merely because the source pronoun has plural uses.
Sesotho’s basic clause pattern also differs from Azerbaijani’s usual predicate-final arrangement. A literal source sequence is not sufficient to identify the actor and object in the target. Follow their roles through the actual predicate construction.
If a source request asks one teacher to arrange supplies for several children, keep the teacher, children and supplies distinct. They can require different target agreement relationships within the same message.
For this direction, review the acting group, the noun modified and the unit counted before judging the target forms. These linked checks preserve the Azerbaijani arrangement while allowing Sesotho classes to organise agreement through their own system.
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