Bodo to Slovenian: the travelling group can require dual agreement
A companion changes more than the list of names
Bodo nɯŋ-zɯŋ means with you in Basumatary’s question about who will go. A source message can consequently introduce a companion through a relation attached to a personal expression. Slovenian may describe the resulting pair through dual grammar rather than a general plural.
Greenberg’s reference grammar gives midva for first-person dual reference, with medve for an all-female pair. The plural forms are different. A Bodo statement about the writer and one other traveller should therefore not automatically be rendered with the same target pronoun used for a larger group.
The grammatical number also matters outside the pronoun. Greenberg illustrates Midva z Miranom greva v Lendavo, meaning that Miran and the writer are going to Lendava. The form greva agrees with the actual two-person subject. Seeing a with-Miran phrase does not make Miran an additional third traveller on top of an already complete pair.
Dual we does not independently include the listener
The Slovenian dual identifies two participants, but it does not by itself distinguish the writer-plus-listener from writer-plus-another-person. Greenberg explains how a with construction can identify the companion. This is relevant when Bodo uses a personal accompaniment expression rather than naming the companion directly.
If the source says the writer will go with you, the addressee is a participant. If it instead says the writer will go with a sibling, the listener may remain outside the pair. Both situations can involve two travellers, but their interpersonal meaning differs. Keep the named or personal companion recoverable instead of expecting the dual pronoun alone to settle it.
Basumatary’s labels inclusive and exclusive for certain Bodo suffixes concern additive and restrictive examples, including only I. They should not be treated as a ready-made mapping to group membership. Only I describes one actor; a Slovenian dual subject describes two. Restriction and dual number must be analysed separately.
The number of owners differs from the number of possessions
Bodo apha denotes my father, already incorporating an owner, while bi-ni bizab expresses a third person’s book. Slovenian possessive forms agree with the noun they accompany. A change in a possessive ending can therefore reflect the possession’s grammatical features rather than a different owner.
Greenberg also distinguishes a possessive meaning both of their from ordinary third-person singular forms. When a Bodo message mentions a pair’s belongings, determine whether the pair owns the item jointly or whether only one member owns it. A dual travelling group does not automatically make every possession jointly theirs.
This is useful for a source combining companionship and luggage arrangements. Two people can travel together while one person brings their own book and another brings someone else’s item. The Slovenian dual can describe the travellers, noun agreement can describe the possessions, and the owner expression can identify a different person. Preserving these separate relationships is more reliable than assuming every two-person source phrase should generate dual marking everywhere in the target.
Language references