Mixe and English/Lexical selection

mto -> eng

Source: mto Destination: English ie. We're translating from Mixe into English.

pö’öj

eng) plant and germinate

mto) pö’öj (p186 of 312)

• The verb root is the same. pö’öj "plant" is always transitive, whereas pö’öj can be transitive or intransitive. When intransitive, you have:
  • NP PERSON-pö’öj-APL.R-INV-(in)dependent.aspect NP
  • The transitive form doesn't have APL.R or INV morphemes, and isn't followed by a noun phrase.
  • NP PERSON-pö’öj-(IN)DEPENDENT.ASPECT

If there's a personal pronoun, pö’öj translates to "plant".

pö’ö

Should this be handled in morphological disambiguation? Because we have two different tag sets in the source language?

mto) Verb stem pö’ö

eng) Verb "break" and noun "sand"

• Translates to "break"

• Translates to "sand"

  • kumöön pöꞌö yäkpätsïmjä

    town sand 3S.DEP=PAS-EDGE-load-APL.R-ICPL.DEP

    "The sand is carried to the municipality."

This one's straightforward. If pö’ö is tagged as a noun, it translates to "sand".

va'an

mto) Verb stem va'an

eng) Verbs "speak" and "say"

• Translates to "speak"

  • ꞌùmükeꞌe tùꞌk jë yaaꞌtyëjk vyaꞌany

    then=QUO=FOC one DET man 3A=say-D.ICPL

    "So then a man spoke."

• Translates to "say"

  • ꞌax paaꞌtyük tseꞌe jè vintsën vyaajny: "ꞌaj ꞌax veꞌemts nꞌit dü moꞌyumda ꞌapëjkin juuꞌ maas müjit."

    now well=QUO ASRT DET owner 3A=say-D.CPL now yes=ASRT 1E=exist-D.ICPL 3E=give-1PL-PL container which more big-VAR

    “Now the boss said: 'Ah, I'd better given them containers which are bigger.'”

If inflected va'an isn't followed by any other words, it should translate to "speak". Otherwise, it should translate to "says".