Welsh to Slovak: a short pronoun can serve a different grammatical role
Do not mistake every small target pronoun for an extra participant
Welsh Universal Dependencies distinguishes dependent personal forms used for possession from those used as objects. Its examples include fy nhŷ, my house, and fy ngweld, seeing me. Their shared fy does not make the second expression a statement about ownership.
Slovak documentation likewise distinguishes several uses of short reflexive forms. In smiala sa, she laughed, sa belongs to an inherently reflexive verb. The expression does not introduce a second person who received the laughter. A Welsh-to-Slovak result can therefore contain an additional short target word without adding another participant to the source event.
For an original Welsh account of someone laughing during a conversation, inserting an interpretation of self-directed action merely because sa appears would change the report. Conversely, deleting that form to make the target resemble a simpler Welsh predicate can damage the Slovak construction. The relevant unit is the complete verb expression rather than a presumed standalone meaning for each short word.
Self, one another, and a passive are separate possibilities
The Slovak documentation contrasts genuinely reflexive and reciprocal objects with reflexive passives and inherently reflexive verbs. Its examples include obed sa varí, the lunch is being cooked. The lunch is not literally described as a cook acting on itself.
Welsh has a cael-based passive in the Foundation grammar, with a corresponding personal form and mutation of the verb noun. Seeing a passive relationship in Welsh does not mean that Slovak must reproduce a possession-like word sequence. The target’s own construction can present the affected item without naming an agent.
For an original Welsh kitchen report, distinguish someone preparing lunch, lunch being prepared, and two people helping one another. The same people may be relevant in the background, but each sentence assigns a different grammatical relationship. A Slovak reflexive-looking form must be interpreted through its particular predicate; it is not sufficient evidence of mutual action or an actor doing something to themselves.
A personal ending and a participle can carry different information
The Slovak overview explains that participles inflect for gender, whereas finite verbs do not. Welsh’s use of a personal pronoun alongside a verb noun should consequently not be mapped onto a rule that every Slovak verb ending identifies the person’s gender.
In an original Welsh account, a speaker may first report that a woman laughed and later say that she will return. The target can express gender information in a past participial construction while structuring the later finite predicate differently. A change in the visible ending does not necessarily indicate a new participant.
The source’s personal reference, the target verb’s required reflexive construction, and any participial agreement must therefore be resolved separately. Correctly identifying the woman would not justify removing a required sa, and retaining sa would not establish whether the Welsh event was reciprocal, passive, or simply a lexical action.
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