Lower Sorbian to Polish: familiar possessive forms still need an identified owner
The source reflexive points back to the actor
Stone’s comparative grammar gives Lower Sorbian won piso ze swojim wolojnikom, describing a man writing with his own pencil. The reflexive possessive connects the pencil’s owner to the clause’s subject. It contributes a relationship that can be lost even if pencil and writing are translated correctly.
Swan describes Polish swój and its inflected forms as referring back to the subject in comparable personal-subject constructions. His example On ma swoje zalety attributes the good points to that same person. Replacing the reflexive with a third-person possessive can introduce another person as the relevant possessor.
For an original Lower Sorbian report that a writer used his own pencil, keep the writer and owner linked in Polish. A target sentence saying that he used someone else’s pencil may look very similar. The difference is not decorative emphasis: it changes whose property was used.
A non-reflexive source possessive may leave more than one reading
Stone contrasts a Lower Sorbian reflexive possessive in an account of taking shoes with a non-reflexive third-person form. In his discussion, the reflexive makes ownership by the actor clear, whereas the other construction can permit ownership by the actor or another person. The two source choices do not carry identical certainty.
For an original source narrative involving two men and a pair of shoes, determine whether the man taking the shoes is also their owner. Do not choose a Polish reflexive simply because it resembles a familiar Lower Sorbian form if the intended owner is the other man.
Equally, selecting the Polish third-person possessive without resolving the source relationship can shift the implication. An ambiguity in the Lower Sorbian account should be investigated through the surrounding event, rather than silently converted into confident ownership by whichever person appeared most recently.
First-person wording need not be copied word for word
Stone notes that ordinary non-reflexive possessives with first- and second-person subjects are acceptable in both literary Sorbian languages. Swan likewise permits the corresponding Polish personal possessives, while often preferring swój in an unambiguous subject-linked expression unless the owner is being emphasized.
An original Lower Sorbian statement meaning I brought my notebook can therefore preserve ordinary ownership in Polish without mechanically preserving the source possessive’s grammatical type. If the point is my notebook rather than yours, the contrast changes the wording decision. The intended emphasis matters alongside the owner’s identity.
This exact-direction issue is easy to miss because the two languages offer visibly related reflexive possessives. Shared ancestry does not settle the interpretation of a particular non-reflexive source form or the target’s preferred ordinary phrasing. Identify whether owner and actor coincide, retain any deliberate contrast, and choose the Polish possessive within its actual clause rather than matching familiar-looking forms in isolation.
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