Czech to Upper Sorbian: se and so do not always mean oneself
A familiar reflexive form may belong to the verb itself
Czech UD distinguishes genuine reflexive objects from words required by inherently reflexive verbs. Its smála se means she laughed, rather than she laughed at herself. Upper Sorbian has a comparable distinction: the reference gives hodźić so for fitting, with so belonging to the lexical construction.
A Czech reader should therefore not treat every target so as a newly introduced object. Conversely, similarity between Czech se and Upper Sorbian so does not establish that every source verb can keep its lexical meaning through a spelling substitution. Identify the verb construction first. A translation about something fitting should not be rewritten as an action performed upon itself merely to give so an independent object meaning.
Reflexive and reciprocal relationships are different
Both references distinguish ordinary reflexive object uses from reciprocal uses. Czech se can participate in a relationship directed back to the actor or in one involving participants acting upon each other. Upper Sorbian so and sej likewise require interpretation within the predicate.
For an original Czech account about two people seeing themselves in a mirror, the reflected persons differ from an account about those people meeting or seeing each other. A target containing a recognizable reflexive form can still choose the wrong relationship. Preserve whether each participant acts toward their own reflection or toward the other participant. The source’s plural actor alone does not decide that the action is reciprocal.
A passive-looking construction need not name a self-acting object
Czech UD gives oběd se vaří as lunch being cooked. Upper Sorbian UD illustrates skłonjować so as being declined in a grammatical description. In these constructions, the reflexive-looking word participates in passive organization rather than asserting deliberate self-action by lunch or a word.
A Czech instruction describing how a form is used or changed should retain that grammatical meaning in Upper Sorbian. Reading so as oneself throughout could manufacture an animate actor that the source never supplies. Likewise, an actual self-directed action should not be flattened into passive reporting. Determine whether the described entity undergoes an action, performs it upon itself, or belongs to an inherently reflexive verb construction.
Case and aspect still matter after the reflexive is recognized
The references distinguish Czech se from dative si and Upper Sorbian so from dative sej. This preserves a role distinction that should not be lost through a general rule mapping every source reflexive onto the same target form.
An original Czech clause about someone hurting themselves differs from one about somebody doing something for themselves. The actor may remain the same, but the self-reference occupies a different relationship. Separately, both languages have lexical aspect: Czech arriving and Upper Sorbian arriving must preserve the intended event boundary, rather than rely on similar-looking prefixes. A correctly chosen reflexive cannot repair a translation that changes an ongoing activity into an accomplished result or a future arrival into something already happening.
Language references