[tlhIngan Hol] {-vaD} "for the benefit of"

[De'vID]

On Fri, 5 Nov 2021 at 04:44, Scott D. Randel <amavocet at comcast.net> wrote:

> Also, the text you presented is not what I would call a definition. It is
> an explanation of the definition, which is given in TKD as “for, intended
> for.”
>

At this point, I'm not sure what would satisfy your request. AFAIK, {-vaD}
is not *defined* anywhere as "for the benefit of". It's *explained* using
the word "beneficiary", and sometimes people have paraphrased the
definition as "for the benefit of".

For example, {-Daq} is "defined" as just "locative" in TKD, but people have
no problem paraphrasing it as "on, at, in". Or {-meH}, which is just
"defined" as "for", is sometimes explained (or defined) as "for the purpose
of" to distinguish it from the {-vaD} kind of "for". People do rephrase the
definitions in TKD, because they're not exact, and sometimes defining or
explaining them in another way is more clear.


> I think that “for the benefit of” describes grammatical “benefit”, not
> benefit to the “recipient.” It says that the “noun” is the beneficiary, not
> that “someone” is the beneficiary.
>
>
>
> What if I say {juHDajvaD yIHmey vInob} (I apologize if that sentence is
> poorly formed; I am a lowly Level 1)? Giving a Klingon tribbles for his
> house provides no benefit for the Klingon or his house.
>

This is explained in TKD section 6.8 "Indirect Objects": "While the object
of the verb is the recipient of the action, the indirect object may be
considered the beneficiary. In a Klingon sentence, the indirect object
precedes the object and is suffixed with the Type 5 noun suffix {-vaD}
'for, intended for.' The suffix may be attached to either a noun or a
pronoun."

The first example even uses the verb {nob}: {yaSvaD taj nobpu' qama'} "The
prisoner gave the officer the knife". The recipient is the beneficiary of
the giving, or in other words, the recipient "benefits" from the giving in
the sense intended here, even if the given object is undesirable, like
tribbles.

{juHDajvaD yIHmey vInob} is exactly how you would say "I give tribbles to
his/her home". The home is the recipient, or beneficiary, of the giving.
This is what people mean when they say {-vaD} is "for the benefit of", not
that the giving confers a benefit (some kind of advantage, gain, or
positive outcome).

(btw, {juH} refers to a home. If you mean "House" in the sense of a
family/tribal/political unit, that's {tuq}. But that's tangential to the
point of your example.)

-- 
De'vID
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