благодарить - direct object - which case?

[david-us.livejournal.com]

When you are thanking somebody, you can say "Благодарю Вас." (I thank you.)

You don't say "Благодарю Вам."

It appears the object of this verb takes the accusative case.

However, there are phrases like "Я здоров благодаря тому, что занимаюсь спортом." (I'm healthy thanks to the fact that I play a sport.)

I realize that this is participial usage but, nonetheless, I would think that, logically, the object would be in the accusative - as it is with the conjugated verb form. "Тому" is the dative case. What is the reason for the switch? Why isn't it "благодаря того, что ..."?

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Благодарю кого/что - accusative. Благодарю is a verb.

благодаря чему - dative. Благодаря is a preposition. It used to be a participle and still looks like a participle from the verb благодарить, that's why you are confused. But these are two different words and they require different cases.

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. I am afraid there is no particular logic behind the switch. As with many other language peculiarities, the language is just the way it is.

[serpent-849.livejournal.com]

it would be благодаря то, что by your logic :)
no idea either why it's so, maybe prepositions don't tend to be used with the accusative? off the top of my head i can only think of в, под etc as directions

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it - you're right. If благодаря took the accusative it wouldn't be чего.

What I've learned is that благодаря is not a gerund, it's a preposition. I didn't realize that. That makes mores sense, then.

Thanks for your help.

[oryx_and_crake]

Благодаря can be a participle too, but then it will took accusative.
E.g.
Громко благодаря Бога за то, что ему не выпало родиться женщиной, он вышел из комнаты.

[sithoid.livejournal.com]

Deconstructing these two cases can probably make them more simple to remember. When you say "Благодарю", there's always a question: whom are you going to thank? So here we use accusative because it answers that question (кого? что?).
However, as it was mentioned above, "Благодаря"　seems to be another word. In this phrase you don't really thank the fact, you merely give credit for your health to that fact. So you may use this expression - give credit - to remember that it's dative (give).

[klepha.livejournal.com]

Both благодаря + кого/что and ,лагодаря + кому/чему originate from the present paticiple of verb благодарить.
In modern language they are different parts of speech (verb and preposition),
have different meaning, used with different cases.
благодарить + кого/что - v, to thank
Благодаря + кому/чему - prep., due to; because of (preposition of reason)

[johanpdx.livejournal.com]

Actually, approximately the same thing happens in English:

Благодарю вас. [Accusative case.] Thank you. (Really: I thank you. "You" is direct object, which requires accusative case in Russian.)

Благодаря вам. [Dative case.] Thanks TO you. Prepositions that are roughly equivalent to the English preposition "TO" in Russian also require the dative case.

[tema-gay.livejournal.com]

Your point is right. Благодаря should've used accusative. However благодаря чему-то is actually a calque from the German "dank jemandem" which requires dative. This phrase comes from the 18. century, when the formal language was heavily influenced by German.