Demonstrative pronouns in Croatian and English: Insights from students’ translations

Croatian and English differ significantly in terms of the demonstrative system – Croatian has a three-way person-oriented system, while English has a binary system. The demonstrative pronouns in Croatian are the proximal ovaj(m.)/ova (f.)/ovo (n.), the medial taj (m.)/ta (f.)/to (n.) and the distal onaj (m.) /ona (f.) /ono (n.). English demonstrative pronouns are the proximal this and the distal that. In order to find out more about how Croatian students translate demonstrative pronouns, an analysis of 557 translations from Croatian into English and 422 translations from English into Croatian was conducted. The analysis focused on both error-rate and the type of errors made. The hypothesis was that the most problematic element would be the medial Croatian demonstrative pronoun since English has no corresponding element. The hypothesis was confirmed, and several factors were identified as playing a role when it comes to the error-rate. The primary factor seems to be proximity since the participants had the least problems with the proximal pronoun in both languages, while the distal, and, in particular, the medial pronoun, proved to be significantly more challenging. The second factor seems to be the presence of a noun, since, as a rule, the error-rate was lower when the pronoun was accompanied by a noun. Finally, in the case of the medial pronoun, gender also seems to play a role, but coupled with the presence of the noun, as the neuter medial pronoun without a noun proved to be the most problematic in terms of translation.