Breakdown of Başkan, kendi menfaati adına değil, toplum adına çalışıyor.
değil
not
çalışmak
to work / to study
başkan
president, chairman
kendi
self
toplum
society
adına
on behalf of / in the name of
menfaat
interest / benefit (self-interest, personal gain)
Questions & Answers about Başkan, kendi menfaati adına değil, toplum adına çalışıyor.
Why does menfaat become menfaati with an -i, but toplum stays as just toplum before adına?
Adına can follow a bare noun for general concepts (like toplum adına - "on behalf of society") or a possessed/genitive noun for specific things. Here, kendi menfaati has the 3rd person possessive suffix -i because it belongs to the subject ("his own interest"). If it were "on behalf of the society", you might also see the genitive: toplumun adına.
What is the literal meaning of adına, and how does it work grammatically?
Literally, it means "to its name" (ad = name, -ı = 3rd person possessive, -n- = buffer, -a = dative case). In this lesson's context, it has become a fixed formal postposition meaning "on behalf of" or "for the sake of".
Why doesn't the t in menfaat change to a d when the vowel suffix -i is added?
Menfaat (interest/benefit) is an Arabic loanword. Many of these loanwords ending in -at or -et (like saat, hayat, devlet) are exceptions to the usual consonant softening rule where p, ç, t, k become b, c, d, ğ. Therefore, the t remains hard.
How does değil work in the middle of the sentence like this?
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