Dogri to Bosnian: two apiece is different from two altogether
Identify whether the quantity applies to each participant
The Bosnian section of Alexander and Elias-Bursać’s lesson includes po dvije kruške for two pears apiece. Its grammar explanation identifies distributive po as expressing each or apiece. The small word changes how the quantity is allocated; it does not merely repeat the numeral’s meaning.
For Dogri to Bosnian, distinguish an original instruction to give two pears to each child from an instruction to share two pears among all the children. The first assigns two to every child; the second sets a total of two. A target preserving only the number while losing the distributive relationship would change the amount needed.
For three children, the first instruction requires six pears, while the second still requires two. This arithmetic follows the intended allocation, not a difference in the lexical meaning of pear. When checking a Bosnian result, establish the group and the share before comparing the displayed quantity with the Dogri source.
Dogri repetition does not have one universal distributive meaning
Sawhney’s Dogri study discusses complete and partial reduplication with several meanings. Its bəkkʰ-bəkkʰ is glossed as different or various, while other repeated forms concern extensive crying or eating. Repetition therefore cannot be treated as a single grammatical instruction meaning two apiece, each person, or a numerical total.
An original Dogri account may describe different children receiving different things. That is not necessarily a claim that every child receives an identical quantity. Translating a repeated source expression as a Bosnian distributive quantity without checking its actual scope could introduce uniform shares the writer never specified.
Conversely, when Dogri clearly states a per-person allocation, preserve that allocation even if the writer has not used visible repetition. Meaning belongs to the complete construction. Do not decide whether to use a distributive target phrase by counting how often a Dogri root appears.
A change in noun form need not change the number distributed
Sawhney describes Dogri numeral inflection in relation to noun case and ordinal agreement. The Bosnian lesson separately explains that the case following distributive po is determined by the sentence, though usually accusative in its discussion. These observations concern different grammatical systems and do not justify copying a source numeral ending into the target.
Consider an original Dogri collection notice: each participant may take two notebooks, and unused notebooks must remain on the desk. The first quantity applies per participant; the second instruction concerns what remains after the distribution. The translation should not turn the remaining stock into another share that each participant may take.
If the source later corrects the share from two to one, the per-person relationship remains while the quantity changes. If it instead says there are only two available in total, the relationship changes too. Keep these corrections distinct so the Bosnian wording preserves the actual instruction.
A useful final check is to reconstruct the intended allocation: who receives something, how much each receives, and whether the source sets a separate overall limit. The target noun and numeral forms then belong inside that allocation. A familiar-looking number alone cannot establish that the same distribution survived.
Language references