This label does not distinguish the polarity of the relation (helping or hurting, which is sometimes termed maleficiary).

• Vote for/against Pedro! 001

• Junk food is bad for your health. 002

• My parrot died on me. 003

• These are clothes for children. 004

• These are children's clothes. (Beneficiary↝Possessor) 005

• Fortunately for the turkey(’s future), he received a presidential pardon. 006

Specific subclasses include:

1. Animate who will potentially experience a benefit or harm as a result of something but is not an experiencer or recipient of the main predicate itself.#

(May be an experiencer or recipient of the result.)

2. Animate target of emotion or behavior, discussed below.#

3. Animate who someone supports or opposes (e.g., vote for, cheer for, Hooray for).#

4. Intended user/usee:#

• (We sell) clothes for children 007

• a gallows for criminals 008

• This is the car for you! [advertising idiom] 009

5. Something characterized as good/appropriate (or not) for some kind of animate user or usee, delimiting the applicability of a descriptor to that kind of individual:#

• This place is great for young children. 010

• This is a great place for young children. 011

The first and last items above have analogues with Purpose. The key difference is that Beneficiary applies to an animate participant, whereas Purpose applies to an intended consequence or one of its inanimate participants.

Targets of behavior versus emotion#

A preposition can mark an individual in the context of evaluating how someone else is treating them, with a noun or adjective governor. If behavior is more salient than emotion, then Beneficiary is the scene role. If emotion is highly salient, then Stimulus is the scene role.

• Behavior-focused:

  • She exhibits rudeness towards customers. (Beneficiary↝Direction) 012

  • He is rude/condescending to women. (Beneficiary↝Goal) 013

  • He is gentle and compassionate with animals. (Beneficiary↝Theme) 014

• Emotion-focused, repeated from Stimulus#014:

  • Her disdain for customers was apparent. (Stimulus↝Beneficiary) 015

  • He has/feels compassion towards/for animals. (Stimulus↝Beneficiary) 016

Note that the emotion-focused examples can describe private emotional states directly, while the behavior-focused examples are behavior-based judgments or inferences about emotional states.

An obligation directed at somebody is analyzed like targeted behavior:

• We have a solemn responsibility to our armed forces. (Beneficiary↝Goal) 017

Similar to the behavior-focused examples, inanimate causes can have the potential to positively or negatively affect somebody. Ability and permission modalities are included here:

• The strategy is beneficial/risky/an option for investors. (Beneficiary) 018

• The strategy is helpful/poses a risk/is available to investors. (Beneficiary↝Goal) 019

Versus Recipient#

Beneficiary applies to the classic English benefactive construction where it is ambiguous between assistance and intended-transfer:

• John baked a cake for Mary. [to help Mary out, and/or with the intention of giving her the cake] 020

However, if transfer (or communication) is the main semantics of the scene and benefit or harm is no more than an inference, then the scene role is Recipient:

• a message/gift for my mother (Recipient↝Direction) 021

• a package for the front office (Recipient↝Direction) 022

See also: Experiencer, Org