benefactive

English

Examples

(English) In the sentence
He opened the door for his son,
the word "son" or the phrase "for his son" is benefactive.

Etymology

From Latin benefactus (“benefited”) plus -ive. Attested since the twentieth century.

Adjective

benefactive (not comparable)

  1. (linguistics) Of or pertaining to the linguistic form or case or the semantic role of the beneficiary of an action. Expressed in English as "on behalf of", "in behalf of", "on one's behalf", or similar.
    Antonym: malefactive
    • 1935, Charles Voeglin, Tübatulabal Grammar, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, volume 34, page 111:
      Normally, the repeated benefactive suffix is not found after the telic form of the verbal stem

Derived terms

Noun

benefactive (plural benefactives)

  1. A term or sentence element that serves a benefactive role or that is inflected for the benefactive case or a similar case (such as the dative case).
    Antonym: malefactive
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.