I just remembered that, despite my username, I have not posted anything about possessive suffixes on here so far; to set right this oversight, here is a small sample of possessive suffix systems across the Uralic languages from reference literature I have around

Proto-Samic, from Sammallahti 1998, The Saami Languages: An Introduction

Proto-Samoyedic, from Mikola 2004, Studien zur Geschichte der samojedischen Sprachen

Late Proto-Permic, from Csúcs 2005, Die Rekonstruktion der permischen Grundsprache

Catford’s translation shifts VS language learning 

I’m not going to grace your eyes with some fancy definitions of translation theories. Believe me, the fancier/smarter something sounds, the worse it is to understand. Instead, I’ll try to present a brief and easy-to-comprehend explanation and examples. 

I majored in translation, and while I thoroughly don’t enjoy it, I find some strategies and theories extremely useful in language learning. 

Check out this post to learn more about the application of translation theories in language learning. 

John Catford’s TRANSLATION SHIFTS. 

 First things first, what are shifts? 

: to exchange for or replace by another: change (Merriam-Webster)

In translation, they refer to changes/shifts in language form. 

There two types of shifts:

LEVEL SHIFTS

CATEGORY SHIFTS

LEVEL SHIFTS

Simply put, the target language doesn’t have a corresponding word but a grammatical construction. We replace grammatical constructions with words or vice versa.

Off-topic

Halliday states that language is realized at 4 different levels: lexis, phonology, graphology, and grammar. I’m not sure if graphology can influence a language learning process, but lexis, grammar, and phonology surely can. I mean, graphology (the way we write) can definitely slow down the whole process (looking at you Japanese! You and your kanji… ugh). Studying phonology (comparing sounds in different languages), on the other hand, can help you work on your accent (studying phonetics would be even better in this case).

To put things into perspective, let’s look at some examples:

I’m working  VS  Teraz pracuję  

Present Continuous indicates that the action is happening NOW. We don’t need to add the word now because the tense alone is enough. 

In Polish, you must add the word TERAZ (now) to show that the action is happening now. The verb alone could indicate Present Simple as well. 

We changed the PRESENT CONTINUOUS to TERAZ. GRAMMAR -> LEXIS 

My car has been repaired VS Moje auto zostało naprawione

Here, we have the Present Perfect Tense in its passive form and “zostało + adjective (naprawione),” which indicates passive voice in Polish. GRAMMAR -> LEXIS 

CATEGORY SHIFTS 

which consist of changes in:

Structure (syntax)

It refers to changes in word order. Polish is a very flexible language. We can start sentences with adjectives, verbs, nouns, or even adverbs. In English, unless we need to emphasize something, we start sentences with nouns.  

Class (parts of speech) 

Adjectives change to verbs, or nouns to verbs, etc.

I’m thirsty (adjective) VS Chcę (verb) mi się pić (verb)

I want (verb) a dog VS Inu ga hoshi (adjective)

Unit (sentences, clauses, phrases, words, morphemes)

Some languages are wordy (Polish is) and some are rather concise and flexible when it comes to word-formation. Japanese is a perfect example here. 

Ikigai (single word) VS a reason for being (phrase)

Mono no aware(phrase) VS a whole description because we can’t even put the meaning into one sentence

Nii-chan (word) VS older brother (phrase)

Intra-system changes 

It refers to grammatical constructions that are present in both languages but are used differently. In Japanese, plural nouns are technically non-existent. The context will tell you if we talk about one thing or many things. However, we can create plural nouns when we talk about animate objects. The concept of plural nouns does exist but is used differently in Japanese and English. 

Bonnie –tachi VS Bonnie and friends/and others

In Japanese, we used a suffix indicating that there is more than one person, but in English, we used an extra plural word to show it. 

 So, how this knowledge can help you?

It will help you ask better questions in class.

Understanding how your native language works will speed up your learning process tremendously.

If comparing languages is your favorite language learning method, Catford’s translation shifts can give an idea where to start and what to notice.

If you’re a teacher, it can help you explain some grammatical phenomena.

If you help others learn your native language, you’ll be able to explain grammatical issues, or at least give examples.

You’ll speed up your translation abilities.

 References