Bosnian to Lingala: we and a named companion may describe just two people
An inclusive group expression should not add an extra participant
A Bosnian source can explicitly name a companion alongside the writer. Lingala can express that relationship with an inclusory construction, where a plural personal expression anticipates the combined group. Reading that expression as an already complete group plus another named person can overcount the participants.
Meeuwis illustrates Bísó na Pierre in a sentence meaning that Pierre and the writer went home. The first-person plural form participates in describing the pair; it does not necessarily mean the writer and an unnamed group in addition to Pierre.
For a Bosnian travel arrangement involving the writer and one colleague, a Lingala we form therefore needs to be read with the named companion. A target that looks plural can preserve exactly two travellers. Conversely, if the source really names a larger group plus Pierre, that extra membership should not disappear because the translator assumes every construction has the smaller inclusory reading.
The target verb can identify a subject without an independent pronoun
The Lingala survey notes that independent subject pronouns are principally used when contrast is needed, while subject information is carried on the verb. A Bosnian message likewise need not repeat an independent personal word in every clause, but the target’s grammatical packaging is its own.
If the writer reports two actions by the same pair, a Lingala clause can retain the participants through the predicate. Do not insert an extra independent pronoun solely to match a source word count. At the same time, a change of actor must remain recoverable; a shared verb root or repeated person prefix chosen for the wrong group would alter the narrative.
The Bosnian specification’s case distinctions can help identify source participants before the target is arranged. An instrumental companion, an accusative affected person and the actor are not interchangeable simply because each is human. Determine their roles before interpreting a compact target verb.
A single relational word can have several jobs
Meeuwis describes na as a connective and a preposition used for accompaniment and other relations. Its role in a named-companion construction differs from its role before a destination. A source with someone and a source to somewhere need not receive unrelated-looking target words, but their relations must stay distinct.
The same survey distinguishes noun-class plural prefixes, such as mo-konzi and ba-konzi for leader and leaders. The quantity of the travelling people and the grammatical shape of another noun in the sentence are separate matters. A plural person expression does not make every possession or destination noun plural.
These observations concern Kinshasa Lingala, the variety documented in the survey. They explain a specific risk for this direction: a target plural can include a named companion rather than add a hidden group, and a short connector can express different relationships in different places. Preserve the Bosnian membership and case roles before deciding that a repeated form is redundant or that an apparently plural construction has invented additional people.
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