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I was wondering if somebody could explain to me what role, precisely, やる fills as a suffix verb. My dictionaries haven't offered a particularly convincing explanation, but one definition in particular, as well as the context I see it used in, suggests to me, at least, that it's a less polite way of saying あげる. No idea how accurate that supposition is, though. Thanks in advance, etc.
Finally! A question I can answer!
やる is used when the receiver of the action is of lower social status than the giver. Like, the giver's younger brother. I hope that helps you out!
Oh goodness I hope I'm not wrong O_o.
Well, yes, I kind of figured out that much from various definitions and context. I'm wondering what the precise meaning of the suffix is, though.
It has the same meaning as あげる, I believe. No difference otherwise.
Keep in mind that it's not interchangeable with -every- instance of 'ageru' though. This is only in the case of '-te ageru'. Another one that you can replace with it is 'ataeru', though it's rarely used.
'yaru' in itself is a generic 'do'. You might find out that 殺る is 'yaru', which is to "do" someone. Thus 殺ってやる and 殺してあげる means the same, if you take out politeness context.
You'd have to stretch your imagination a bit to think of a situation where politeness is called for when you're offering to kill someone, though XDQuote:
Thus 殺ってやる and 殺してあげる means the same, if you take out politeness context.
Your question has pretty much been answered above, but I'll add that やる as a suffix can in some cases be used to connote a positive attitude towards an action.
For example,
やってやる！ -> I'll (definitely) do it!
勝手やる！ -> I'm going to win (no matter what it takes)!
殺してやる！ -> I'm going to kill you (for sure)!
You'll simply have to rely on tone and context to distinguish this from the usage of やる AzureDark-sempai stated above.
So in a nutshell,
やる (as a verb) -> give, send for
～てやる (as a suffix) -> do ~ for someone
～てやる (as a suffix) -> attatches a positive attitude towards an action