Why use the dative "толку" in "От него гораздо больше толку"?

Question

От него гораздо больше толку, чем от некого короля!

I assume this sentence literally means:

From him (we get) a lot more use than from a certain king.

I wonder why the noun "толк" has to be in Dative here? Is it an omitted, impersonal subject that I'm dealing with here? Still, I'm not sure how to properly parse the sentence.

Literally one can say something like: This person (male) is more useful, more efficient, rational or practical (and probably more clever) than some king, and this is beneficial to other people . толку does not necessarily imply USE but all these connotations. — alexsms, Feb 14 '18 at 05:28

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 13 '18 at 18:37

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It's not dative. It's a genitive form from a now-extinct paradigm that has come to have a partitive meaning, "a measure of an uncountable thing". Related: Partitive Genitive.

answered Feb 13 '18 at 18:37

Nikolay Ershov

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Wow, I hadn't expected this. So is it like "he is of a lot more use ..."? – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens Feb 13 '18 at 18:38
@alone-Zee Your original "from him (we get)" was a closer approximation. It's the same use of genitive as the French je voudrais de* l'eau*, "I'd like [a quantity] of water" = "some water". – Nikolay Ershov Feb 13 '18 at 18:49
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Oh, so it's a bit strange in English, but is it like: "a lot more *of* use"? --- "a measure {*a lot more} of* an uncountable thing {*use*}" – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens Feb 13 '18 at 18:55
@alone-Zee Yes, exactly. – Nikolay Ershov Feb 13 '18 at 19:07
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@alone-Zee the form of standard Genitive *толкА* here would also be OK – Баян Купи-ка Feb 13 '18 at 19:21
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In this sense толкУ seems preferable (cf. без толку - fixed phrase, толку мало, толку нет - sound better) – alexsms Feb 14 '18 at 05:22

Why use the dative "толку" in "От него гораздо больше толку"?

1 Answers1