Benefactive case
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Transitivity and valency |
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Transitivity |
Intransitive verb Transitive verb Ditransitive verb |
Valence increasing |
Causative Applicative Benefactive Dative shift |
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Reciprocal (grammar) Reciprocal pronoun |
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The benefactive case (
This meaning is often incorporated in a dative case. In Latin this type of dative is called the dativus commodi.
An example of a language with a benefactive case is
In Aymara, the benefactive case is marked with -taki, expressing that the referent of the inflected noun benefits from the situation expressed by the verb, or, when there is no verb, that the noun to which it attaches is a recipient, as in the word below:[1]
khuchi
pig
-ja
-1.POSS
-naka
-PL
-taki
-BEN
-w(a)
-DECL
'for my pigs'
Benefactive meaning may also be marked on the verb, in a common type of applicative voice.
Autobenefactive
An autobenefactive case or voice marks a case where the agents and the benefactor are one and the same. In Rhinelandic colloquial German, one finds expressions like:
- Ich rauch mer en Zigarett.
(I smoke a cigarette for myself), where mer (for myself) is optional.
In the
- Hä deiht sesch bedde
(He is praying).
Similarly, in French one can say, in informal but fully correct language:
- Je me fume une cigarette. Je me fais une pause.
(Literally: I (to) myself smoke a cigarette. I (to) myself do a pause.)
Formally, those forms coincide with reflexives in these languages.
A similar construction is also found in colloquial English with a pronoun that is reflexive in function but not form:[2]
- I love me some chicken.