This paper attempts to relate translation studies and the theory of language acquisition,
two research areas that have traditionally developed separately, by looking at recent
findings on some grammatical properties of translated texts on the one hand, and the
results of acquisitional studies dealing with those same properties on the other. In addition
to reviewing research on the long known phenomenon of pronoun overuse, it focuses
on a less explored problem, namely the overuse of possessive adjectives, reporting preliminary
data from English to Serbian translations. Based on a comparison with the
results obtained in acquisitional studies of possessives, it is argued that the different
cases of patterning between translation and language acquisition, in particular second
language acquisition and first language attrition, point to a similarity in the linguistic
systems of translators and language acquirers, or attriters, and speak in favour of closer
collaboration between the fields. In particular, we suggest that such collaboration could
be of benefit to future translators, whom the knowledge of language acquisition theory
could help become more aware of the domains of grammar that are particularly problematic.
