Prepositions with the Dative and the Accusative in German

Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium Volume 6 Issue 1 Article 9 3-28-1980 Prepositions with the Dative and the Accusative in German Marvin H. Folsom Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Folsom, Marvin H. (1980) "Prepositions with the Dative and the Accusative in German," Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1, Article 9. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls/vol6/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact scholarsarchive@byu.edu, ellen_amatangelo@byu.edu.

PREPOSITIONS WITH THE IVE AND THE ACCUSATIVE IN GERMAN Marvin H. Folsom Brigham Young University Traditionally the nine prepositions which govern the dative or the accusative case have been arranged in grammars and textbooks according to the alphabet: an, au~ hinter, in, neben, tiber, unter, vor, zwischen. This paper will explore other criteria for their arrangement. They are 1) frequency, 2) meaning, 3) the tendency to use one of the two cases in a specific environment (time, prepositional object of a verb, intralocal/translocal, admoninal phrases and others). In conclusion, I will try to present a total view from the standpoint of case. Texts and manuals typically call these prepositions one of the following: prepositions with the dative or the accusative prepositions with the dative and the accusative accusative/dative prepositions two-way prepositions either-or prepositions "doubtful" prepositions What, of course, is implied by these terms is that each of the prepositions governs the dative case to express one meaning and that it also governs the accusative to express another, quite different meaning. They are not meant to or should not imply that the prepositions govern both cases simultaneously in the same clause or that they may govern either case with the same meaning, that is that they are merely equally correct alternatives for the same function. It is interesting to note in passing that the term "dative" most often precedes "accusative", a rather minor point to which I will make reference later in the paper. In order to gain a little perspective, let us examine the relative frequencies of the dative/accusative prepositions in the recent frequency counts as compared to the total of all prepositions. Dative/Accusative Prepositions Kaeding Pfeffer Wangler Preller/Zimmermann Swenson Rosengren Ave. (% of total) 38.8% 46.0% 44.7% 50.0% 39.6% 43.6% 40.0% On the average, four of every ten prepositions present the student with the problem of having to decide whether to use the dative or the accusative case. If we now look at the statistics in the frequency count for spoken German (which is the variety taught in most beginning Copyright 1980 by Marvin H. Folsom. Used by permission.

69 courses) we see that the dat./acc. prepositions constitute the largest single class of prepositions and, of course, the only one where the student must make a choice. Prepositions (% of Total) Dat./Acc. Dat. Acc. Gen. Pfeffer 46% 43.5% 9.6% 0.8% All 40% 46% 12% 2% The criterion of frequency in the treatment of grammar has become popular in recent years, especially as it applies to vocabulary and the selection of structural items that should be treated early. Let us examine the use of frequency as a basis for the ordering of the prepositions which take the dative and the accusative. Preposition Tokens % % (Cumulative) 1. ln 356 323 51 51 2. auf 118 352 17 68 3. an 107 561 15 83 4. liber 38 945 6 89 5. vor 34 892 5 94 6. unter 23 922 3 97 7. zwischen 10 617 1.5 98.5 8. neben 5 334 0.7 99.2 9. hinter 3 677 -.J2.:.2 99.7 699 532 99.7 99.7 The figures in the above table represent a total of the occurrences of these prepositions in the various frequency counts. It is instructive in that it shows us that in accounts for more than half of all of the prepositions in this group: that in, auf and an account for 83%, and that unter, zwischen, neb en and hinter taken together amount to only 5.7%. One is tempted to suggest that only the first three be taught in the first year and that the others be added later. This frequency order can be memorized by rote just as easily as the traditional alphabetical one. If one couldn I t remember the last element or so it would still be functional for a very large portion of the total. The frequency order does have several things to recommend itself over the alphabetical one, but there are still other possibilities even if we discard as frivolous the reverse alphabetical orders of zwischen, vor, unter, liber, neben, in, hinter, auf, an and auf, an, neben, zwischen, in, liber, hi~, unter, vor. -- -- ---

70 One recent textbook and one recent grammar have departed from the alphabetical tradition by grouping them mnemonically according to meaning. 83% l. 3. 2. in 'in; into' an 'at, on (up against)' auf 'on; (down) on(to)' 6% 5.5% 2.2% 4. 6. 5. 9. 8. 7. uber 'above, over, across' unter i 'under, below, beneath' ii 'among' vor 'before, in front of' ~ter 'behind' neben 'beside, next to' zwischen 'between' (From A. E. Hammer, German Grammar and Usage, London: Arnold, 1971, p. 311) 6% 5.5% 32% 53.2% 4. 6. 9. 5. 2. 3. l. 8. 7. uber 'over, above' unter 'under, below' hinter 'behind, in back of' vor 'in front of' auf 'on (horizontal surfaces)' an 'on (vertical surfaces)' in 'in, into' D;ben 'beside, next to, alongside of' zwischen 'between' (From Vail/Sparks/Huber, Modern German, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978, p. 112). Both have tried to group them in semantic pairs as far as is possible, but have only two pairs in common (uber/unter and hinter/vor), and of course nine elements must necessarily leave one element unpaired. The order in Hammer is essentially the same as the frequency order and because of the placement of in (51%) the order in Vail/Sparks/Huber is one of reverse frequency. An arrangement in a text produced in Germany calls itself a Merkvers but is in reality merely an alphabetical order modified for the sake of a (somewhat) better verse: An, auf, hinter, neben, in uber, unter, vor und zwischen stehen immer mit dem Akkusativ, wenn man fragen kann wohin? Mit dem Dativ stehn sie so, dab man nur kann fragen wo?

71 (From W. Jude, Deutsche Grammatik, Braunschweig: Westermann, 1961, p. 183) Neben and in have exchanged places so that in will rime with wohin and kann has been removed from the end position so that wo can rime with so. Listed below are some of the terms used to describe the use of the dative as distinguished from the use of the accusative. Dative rest location position positions in space place where wo? in-situation place where the entire action goes on from beginning to end intralocal durative/effective Accusative motion destination, direction change of location movement through space place to which wohin? into-situation the end-point or goal reached by the action. trans local terminative The only term that is misleading is "rest." It is frequently pointed out to students that we can say er geht im Garten auf und ab, where the motion is within the garden. The dichotomy described above is the one that occupies the most space in the treatment of these prepositions, especially in textbooks. Mention is usually made elsewhere in the text that in, an and vor are used with the dative in time expressions. A study which will be treated in more detail later in this paper shows that the verb governed intralocal/translocal use occurs 30.6% of the time, adnominal phrases 26%, time expressions 8.7%, prepositional objects of the verb 16% and other constructions 18.7%. I found one recent text that says something about these other uses of these prepositions. After the discussion of the intralocal/translocal distinction it notes that in and an (no mention is made of vor) are used with the dative In time expressions. It also notes that when these prepositions occur In combination with verbs or nouns to express neither direction nor location nor time, they usually take an accusative object (Wangler/ Kyes/Scherer, Contemporary German, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971, p. 311). The examples listed are: denken an, Erzahlungen tiber, glauben an, Interesse haben an, antworten auf, lac hen tiber and sprechen tiber. The fact that only an, auf and tiber occur in these examples will become important later in this presentation. Let us now turn to a discussion of case as a criterion for ordering these prepositions, that is the relative frequency with which a given preposition is used with the dative as compared to its use with the accusative. If we take all the examples of these prepositions occuring in a running sample and record for each how many occur in the

dative and how many in the accusative we will have some indication of the relative "dativeness" of each preposition. (This summary is based on 12,440 examples from modern German prose.) 72 Preposition % Dative % of Total % Cumulative 1. liber 13.3 6 6 2. auf 44.8 1'7 23 3. an 71.8 15 38 4. neben 74.0 0.7 38.7 5. in 85.0 51 89.9 6. zwischen 91.0 1.5 91.2 7. hinter 91.2 0.5 91. 7 8. vor 92.5 5 96.7 9. unter 94.4 3 99.7 At first glance, we get a rather surprlslng picture. The label "twoway" preposition if we take it at its face value of implying that the preposition occurs about equally in each of the uses applies only to auf. tiber is used predominantly in the accusative (86.7%) and zwischen, hinter, ~and unter are used more than 90% of the time in the dative. Only auf ~urs about as often in the accusative (45.2% as in the dative 44.8%)-.- Even in (the most frequent of this group) is used about 85% of the time in the dative. These statements lose something, however, when we remember that unter, zwischen, neben and hinter in aggregate amount to less than 6% of the occurrences of the prepositions in this class. The method of gathering and displaying this data also fails to take into consideration that three of these prepositions (in, an and vor) are used with the dative in time expressions which, of course, would weight their "dativeness". We must be more discriminating in the classification of our material, and see whether the dative or the accusative is used more often within smaller categories. The 1000 examples for this study were taken from prose works of Doblin, Mann, Boll, Du.rrenmatt, the FAZ, the SZ and Brigitte by Brigitte Steinhausen/Arnold. (Previous Study) Preposition Dative Accusative Total % Dative % Dative 1. liber 4 59 63 6 13.3 2. auf 77 107 184 42 44.8 3. hinter 6 4 10 60 91.9 4. neben 7 3 10 70 74.0 5. an 114 38 152 75 71.8 6. ln 402 102 504 80 85.0 7. unter 19 3 22 86 94.4 8. vor 41 0 41 100 92.5 9. zwischen 14 0 14 100 91.9 684 316 1000 68.4

The only preposition which seems misplaced in this summary as compared to the previous one is hinter and its position could certainly be clarified in a larger sample. The fact that the overall average is 68.4% lends some validity to the practice of placing the term "dative" first when we speak of dative/accusative prepositions. 73 If we now classify this information according to 1) intralocal/translocal (er geht ins Haus/er liegt im Bett), 2) time phrases (am Abend, vor drei Jahren), 3) prepositional objects, 4) adnominal phrases (das Buch auf dem Tisch), and 5) other (independent) prepositional phrases (in dieser, auf diese Weise, am besten, etc.), we will notice significant differences. INTBALOCALjTRANSLOCAL Preposition Dative Accusative Total 11/ 10 Dative Rank(% dative) ln 66 77 143 46 5 auf 26 55 81 32 3 an 24 13 37 65 7 liber 3 14 17 18 2 vor 9 0 9 100 8 unter 4 3 7 57 6 neben 2 3 5 40 4 hinter 0 4 4 0 1 zwischen _3_ 0 _3_ 100 9 137 168 305 45% Ave. In this category, the dative is used only 45% of the time instead of the average of 68.4% in all categories taken together. We also see how the four accusative examples with hinter distort the picture. The few examples and the zeros on the lower end of the table obviously require more extensive data in order to clarify the picture. From this data, we can say that in this category hinter and liber are used mostly with the ace., that vor and zwischen are used mostly with the dat., and that the others (in, auf, an, unter and neben) are used (about equally) with the dative and the accusative (between 32% and 65%). TIME EXPRESSIONS Preposition Dative Accusative Total ln 55 0 55 an 19 0 19 vor 11 0 11 liber 0 2 2 85 2 87

In this category the usage is total and exclusive: in, an and vor are used only with the dative and uber is used only wit~the-accusative. ADNOMINAL PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES In this category we have prepositional phrases which modify a noun independent of a verb or a verbal derivative, for example, das Buch auf dem Tisch or der Wagen vor dem Haus. 74 ln 164 auf 49 an 25 tiber 0 vor 4 unter 6 zwischen 2 neben 4 hinter 6 Here we again we have dative only (and almost in the order of frequency) with the exception of tiber which continues to display an antipathy for the dative. Nouns which are followed by one of these prepositions in the accusative are, as far as I can tell, derived exclusively from verbs which have a prepositional object (die Hoffnung auf eine gute Stellung from hoffen with auf and the acc.) or which show translocal motion (der Einzug in ei~neue Wohnung from einziehen with the acc./ die Fahrt in die Stadt from fahren). PREPOSITIONAL OBJECTS This category includes those prepositions which are governed by a particular verb in a given meaning, sometimes referred to as the valence of the verb, e.g. denken an, etc. Preposition Dative Accusative Total % Dative tiber 0 30 30 0 auf 2 34 36 6 ln 12 25 37 32 an 28 23 51 55 unter 1 0 1 100 vor _5_ 0 _5_ 100 260 48 112 160 Ave. 30

75 Let us note the following: 1) liber did not occur in the dative 2) auf occurred very seldom in the dative 3) in occurred with the dative in about a third of the examples 4) an occurred with the dative about as much as with the accusative 5) unter and vor occurred only in very few examples in the dative OTHER (INDEPENDENT) PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES Preposition Dative Accusative Total % Dative auf 0 19 19 0 liber 0 14 14 0 an 19 0 19 100 hinter 0 0 0 ln 105 0 105 100 neben 1 0 1 100 unter 8 0 8 100 vor 12 0 12 100 zwischen 9 0 9 100 Auf and liber are used only in the accusative, all others (except hinter which did not occur in this category) occurred only in the dative, although the few examples urge cautious conclusions. If we now combine these categories into an overview, we have the following summary (examples are listed on the following sheets).

1) TIME 2) PREPOSITIONAL 3) INTRALOCAL/ PREPOSITION PHRASES OBJECTS TRANS LOCAL 4) ADNOMINAL 5) OTHER PHRASES (INDEPENDENT! SUMl,1ARY tiber ACC ACC /ACC ACC MOSTLY ACC I AUF ACC /ACC /ACC ACC EITHER OR ACC I f..n /ACC,/ACC : I I IN /ACC /Ace I I! \ DArr ACCORDING TO TYPE r;or -l: --.J 0\ i;eben * I LlnER, -l'- DP.T MOSTLY IVE I HINTER ( ) ~< I I ZWISCHEN () ':" () -. *The type ie, etc. is rare

PREPOSITIONS WITH IVE AND ACCUSATIVE IN GERMAN IVE ACCUSATIVE 1. In time expresslons a) an, in and vor with dat. ~ Abend, a~ Mittwoch, am 21. August (liber... Jahr, heute liber acht Tag~) b) (liber and) auf with acc. im Sommer, im August, in diese~ Jahr auf zwei Jahr~, auf langer~ Zeit vor einem Jahr, vor einer Woche 2. As prepositional object of a verb a) liber with acc. er freut sich auf das Geschenk b) auf, an, in with dat. and acc. er besteht auf seinem Recht er ist an einer schweren Krankheit gestorben ich warte auf ihn ich erinnere mich an ihn... sie tauscht sich in ihm er verliebt sich In Sle c) vor, neben, unter, hinter, zwischen mostly in the dat. er warnt sie vor der Gefahr Was verstehen Sie unter diesem.begriff? d) includes nouns derived from these verbs die Warnung vor der Gefahr (from warnen vor with dat.) die Erinnerung an seine Mutter (from erinnern an with-acc.)

IVE ACCUSATIVE 3. Intralocal/translocal a) intralocal with dat. b) translocal with acc. c) vor, neben, unter, hinter, zwischen mostly with the dat. d) includes nouns derived from these verbs es hangt tiber dem Sofa sle sitzt auf dem Stuhl die Leiter lehnt am Baum er wohnt in der Stadt er parkt das Auto vor dem Haus er sitzt neb en ihr der Hund liegt unter dem Bett er hat im Kino hinter ih~ gesessen sle sae zwischen den zwei Gasten das Park en auf dem Btirgersteig (from parken with-dat.) er geht tiber die StraEe er setzt sich auf das Sofa sle schickt es an seinen Vater sle hangt das Kleid in den Schrank der Einzug in die neue Wohnung (from einziehen-with ~cc. )... ex> 4. Adnominal prepositional phrases in the dative only (phrases in the acc. under 2d and 3d) das Buch auf dem Tisch der Wagen vor dem Haus

IVE ACCUSATIVE 5. Other (independent) prepositional phrases a) uber and auf mostly with the acc. b) an, in, vor, neben unter, hinter, zwischen mostly with the dat. ubers Wochenende uber die Jahrhunderte auf eigen~ Gefahr auf die Dauer auf diese Weise 8!!!. beste~., an ihm vorbei In der Tat, in der Regel In dieser Weise, in diesem Fall -...J \0 vor alle!!!., allee. DingeE. neben andere!!!., neben anderen DingeE. unter andere!!!., unter keinen Umstanden zwischen den Feiertage~ zwischen Mann und Frau

80 As a result of this study, I recommend that we 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) abandon the alphabetical order of the dative/accusative prepositions even at the cost of having to forget our favorite examples, rimes and techni~ues and create new ones adopt an order which reflects the predominant case of the preposition overall: uber/auf, an, in/vor, neben, unter, hinter, zwischen (uber being used predominantly in the accusative, auf, an and in being used about e~ually with the dative and the a~sative, and vor neben, unter, hinter and zwischen being used predominantly in the dative) point out that in prepositional phrases of time an, in and vor are used only in the dative point out that in adnominal prepositional phrases the dative 1S used exclusively point out that in other (independent) prepositional phrases, uber and auf are used in the accusative and the others are used in the dative remember that vor, neben, unter, hinter, zwischen are used over 90% of the time in the dative