Editing Benefactive case (section)

{{Short description|Grammatical case}}
{{Confused|benedictive mood}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2009}}
{{Transitivity and Valency}}
The '''benefactive case''' ([[list of glossing abbreviations|abbreviated]] {{sc|'''ben'''}}, or sometimes {{sc|'''b'''}} when it is a [[core argument]]) is a [[grammatical case]] used where [[English language|English]] would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g. "She opened the door ''for Tom''" or "This book is ''for Bob''". The benefactive case expresses that the referent of the noun it marks receives the benefit of the situation expressed by the clause.

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 [[Basque language|Basque]], which has a benefactive case ending in ''-entzat''. [[Quechua language|Quechua]] is another example, and the benefactive case ending in Quechua is ''-paq''. Tangkhul-Naga (from the [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] group of languages) has the benefactive case marker ''{{IPA|-wiʋaŋ}}''.

In [[Aymara language|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:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coler |first=Matt |year=2015 |title=A Grammar of Muylaq' Aymara: Aymara as spoken in Southern Peru |series=Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas |publisher=Brill |page=221 |isbn=978-9-00-428380-0}}</ref>

{{interlinear|indent=3
|top= khuchijanakatakiw.
| khuchi -ja -naka -taki -w(a)
| pig -1.POSS -PL -BEN -DECL
| 'for my pigs'}}

Benefactive meaning may also be marked on the verb, in a common type of [[applicative voice]].