Indirect Pronoun to exclude personal pronoun
Can the reflexive pronouns be used so as to exclude the personal pronouns? Mainly I want to know about how I heard something in a song. In a song, I hear: Me cansé de que me tomes la cerveza (I could be missing parts of the song) Which translates to "I'm tired of you drinking my beer"
What I want to know is, is there no possessive pronoun with cerveza because there is the indirect pronoun, if not why is the 'me' there? Can you do that?
3 Answers
Just to mention it, Me cansé is not I am tired (present tense) of..., but I tired or got tired (past tense) of ....
Jerimias' explanation of tomar being used as llevar/traer instead of beber is a lot easier than what I thought the situation was. If your translation of drinking my beer was correct I would have tried explaining the difference between the me being a "dative of interest" here rather than a direct object, and therefore, removed the necessity of using a possessive adjective.
In English indirect objects tell us to whom or for whom the verb's action is done. It is the receiver of the direct object. In English you must have a direct object to have an indirect object.
In Spanish, the direct object is not needed to have an indirect object. Spanish has several constructions that use a dative ponoun to show who is effected by the action of the verb, but not an actual participant in the action like with an indirect object.
In your sentence the me in me tomas does not tell us to whom or for whom the drinking was done. Neither is "me" the receiver of the verb's direct object (cerveza). The me is a dative of interest or a non-particpant of the verb's action, but a party of interest effected by the verb's action. This is sometimes called a dative of disadvantage (the verb's action is detrimental to you, even though you are not a participant in the action). You suffer from the other person drinking the beer.
Since the me is there to say who is effected by the verb's action the use of a possessive adjective is not needed.
A similar "dative of interest" construction are those unforesseen occurences using se. The dative pronoun (i.o.p.) is used to show who is effected by the situation, not who received the action of the verb nor the recipient of direct object.
Se me ovidaron las llaves. The me tells us who is effected (suffers) by the forgetting, not for whom or to whom the forgetting was done, nor is the me the recipent of the direct object.
Not knowing a language that uses datives vs. indirect object pronouns vs. object of the preposition pronouns like Latin I can't explain these differences very well. So let's go with Jeremias' explanation. Occam's razor.
Here's another interesting one from the Spanishdict dictionary entry for cansar = to tire.
Cuando ando mucho se me cansan las piernas.
When I walk a lot my legs get very tired.
It appears that the reflexivity in this case is with the legs, notice that the verb cansar is conjugated in 3rd person plural = cansan to agree with legs. Se is the 3rd person plural reflexive pronoun. The "me" appears to be "dative of interest" and is therefore an indirect object.
Literal translation:
When I walk a lot the legs tire themselves out and this effects me.
Hi Himself,
I believe the following explains why it is 'la cerveza' and not 'mi cerveza' in the subordinate clause.
She is tired of him bringing her beer in general, not a particular beer that is 'hers' as opposed to someone else's. I believe you would say 'mi cerveza' for emphasis only, to distinguish 'my beer' from someone else's.
