Danish to Bosnian: a changed descriptive ending can identify case
Both languages change adjectives, but the distinctions differ
Danish Universal Dependencies describes adjective agreement in gender, number, and definiteness. A source adjective ending can consequently reflect the noun phrase’s grammar rather than a new descriptive meaning.
The MULTEXT-East Bosnian specifications also distinguish gender and number, but include case among the grammatical properties of adjectives and adjective-like participles. Their examples therefore cannot be interpreted by assigning every Bosnian ending the same contribution as a familiar Danish ending.
For an original Danish description of an organized event, the Bosnian form describing that event can change when the noun phrase occupies another grammatical role. The event need not become plural, less organized, or a different event. Identify which noun the descriptive form belongs to and what role the whole phrase plays.
One descriptive stem can occur across several case forms
The Bosnian specifications list održana in a feminine singular nominative participial category and održanoj in feminine singular dative and locative categories. They also list forms of the same lemma in other gender-number-case combinations. These are grammatical classifications in the resource, rather than complete sample sentences.
A Danish writer should therefore not treat the difference between those target endings as proof that the event’s identity changed. Danish source nouns generally do not supply a matching set of overt case endings for each such role. The translation can need a visible distinction that Danish expresses through construction and preposition.
For an original Danish report, compare identifying an event that took place with referring to arrangements connected to that event. A target descriptive form can adapt to the phrase’s case while preserving the same event. Conversely, an ending copied from a subject-like phrase may be inappropriate after a construction requiring another case.
This is not permission to alter endings by guesswork. The source identifies the relationship, while the Bosnian noun phrase and governing construction determine the actual form. A familiar stem does not establish that the surrounding agreement is correct.
Grammatical gender belongs to the target noun phrase
The Bosnian resource distinguishes masculine, feminine, and neuter descriptive forms. Danish also has grammatical gender agreement, but its source categories should not be imposed directly on the Bosnian noun chosen to translate the phrase.
For an original Danish notice about a completed activity, the target’s descriptive agreement follows the relevant Bosnian noun. A different gender-marked ending need not introduce a person of that gender, and it does not independently establish the natural sex of anyone involved.
The same notice may distinguish one activity from several activities. Preserve that number through the complete target noun phrase rather than infer it from an isolated ending that also expresses case or gender. A surface difference can combine several grammatical contributions.
The practical comparison therefore keeps the activity’s identity, the number of activities, and the phrase’s syntactic relationship separate. Bosnian can express those distinctions through noun and adjective agreement that has no one-for-one Danish ending. Read the whole phrase and its governing predicate before concluding that a changed descriptive form altered the source meaning.
Language references