Prepositions with the Dative and the Accusative in German, 68-80

Prepositions with the Dative and the Accusative in German, 68-80

PREPOSITIONS WITH THE DATIVE 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.
(% of total)
38.8%
46.0%
44.7%
50.0%
39.6%
43.6%
Ave. 40.0%
Dative/Accusative Prepositions
Kaeding
Pfeffer
Wangler
Preller/Zimmermann
Swenson
Rosengren
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.
Pfeffer
All
46%
40%
Dat.
Acc.
Gen.
43.5%
46%
9.6%
12%
0.8%
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
1.
ln
2.
auf
3.
an
4.
liber
5.
vor
6.
7.
unter
8.
neben
9.
hinter
356
118
107
38
34
23
10
5
3
699
zwischen
323
352
561
945
892
922
617
334
677
532
%
51
17
15
6
5
3
1.5
0.7
-.J2.:.2
99.7
% (Cumulative)
51
68
83
89
94
97
98.5
99.2
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.
l.
83%
3.
2.
in 'in; into'
an 'at, on (up against)'
auf 'on; (down) on(to)'
6%
4.
6.
uber 'above, over, across'
unter i 'under, below, beneath'
ii 'among'
5.5%
5.
9.
vor
2.2%
8.
7.
neben 'beside, next to'
zwischen 'between'
'before, in front of'
~ter 'behind'
(From A. E. Hammer, German Grammar and Usage, London: Arnold, 1971, p. 311)
6%
4.
6.
uber 'over, above'
unter 'under, below'
5.5%
9.
hinter 'behind, in back of'
vor 'in front of'
32%
5.
2.
3.
l.
53.2%
8.
7.
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
Accusative
rest
motion
location
destination, direction
position
positions in space
place where
change of location
movement through space
place to which
wo?
wohin?
in-situation
into-situation
place where the entire
action goes on from
beginning to end
the end-point or goal
reached by the action.
intralocal
trans local
durative/effective
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
72
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.)
% Dative
13.3
44.8
Preposition
1.
2.
3.
4.
liber
5.
6.
in
7.
8.
9.
hinter
auf
1'7
71.8
74.0
85.0
91.0
91.2
92.5
94.4
an
neben
zwischen
vor
unter
% Cumulative
6
23
38
38.7
89.9
91.2
% of Total
6
15
0.7
51
1.5
0.5
91. 7
96.7
99.7
5
3
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
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
liber
auf
hinter
neben
an
ln
unter
vor
zwischen
Dative
Accusative
Total
4
77
6
7
114
402
19
41
14
684
59
107
4
3
38
102
3
0
0
316
63
184
10
10
152
504
22
41
14
1000
% Dative
6
42
60
70
75
80
86
100
100
68.4
% Dative
13.3
44.8
91.9
74.0
71.8
85.0
94.4
92.5
91.9
73
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.
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
11/0
1
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
0
9
100
8
unter
9
4
3
7
6
neben
2
3
hinter
0
4
5
4
57
40
0
1
_3_
0
_3_
100
9
zwischen
137
168
4
45% Ave.
305
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
0
2
2
2
87
liber
85
74
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.
ln
164
auf
49
an
25
tiber
0
vor
4
unter
6
zwischen
2
neben
4
hinter
6
260
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
Dative
Accusative
tiber
0
30
30
0
auf
2
34
36
6
ln
12
25
37
32
an
28
23
51
1
0
1
55
100
_5_
0
_5_
100
unter
vor
48
112
Total
160
Ave. 30
75
Let us note the following:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
liber did not occur in the dative
auf occurred very seldom in the dative
in occurred with the dative in about a third of the examples
an occurred with the dative about as much as with the
accusative
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
19
0
19
100
0
0
0
105
0
105
100
neben
1
0
1
100
unter
8
0
8
100
12
0
12
100
9
0
9
100
an
hinter
ln
vor
zwischen
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
PHRASES
2) PREPOSITIONAL
OBJECTS
3) INTRALOCAL/
TRANS LOCAL
4) ADNOMINAL
tiBER
ACC
ACC
DAT/ACC
DAT
ACC
MOSTLY
ACC
AUF
ACC
DAT/ACC
DAT/ACC
DAT
ACC
EITHER
PREPOSITION
5)
PHRASES
OTHER
(INDEPENDENT!
SUMl,1ARY
I
DAT OR
ACC
I:
f..N
DAT
DAT/ACC
,DAT/ACC
I
IN
DAT
DAT/ACC
DAT/Ace
DAT
I
!
ACCORDING
TO TYPE
I
I
I
I
DArr
DAT
DAT
\
I
r;OR
DAT
DAT-l:
DAT
DAT
DAT
--.J
0\
i;EBEN
DAT*
DAT
DAT
DAT
MOSTLY
I
,
LlnER
HINTER
DAT
DAT-l'-
DAT
( DAT)
DAT~<
DAT
DAT':"
DAT
I
ZWISCHEN
I
(DAT)
-.
*The type
DP.T
ie,
etc.
is
rare
(DAT)
DATIVE
I
PREPOSITIONS WITH DATIVE AND ACCUSATIVE IN GERMAN
DATIVE
1.
ACCUSATIVE
In time expreSSlons
a)
an, in and vor with dat.
~
b)
(liber and) auf with acc.
im Sommer, im August, in
Abend,
a~
Mittwoch, am 21. August
diese~
Jahr
(liber.§.. Jahr, heute liber acht Tag~)
auf zwei
Jahr~,
auf
langer~
Zeit
vor einem Jahr, vor einer Woche
2.
As prepositional object
of a verb
a)
liber with acc.
b)
auf, an, in with dat.
and acc.
c)
d)
vor, neben, unter,
hinter, zwischen
mostly in the dat.
includes nouns derived
from these verbs
er freut sich auf das Geschenk
er besteht auf seinem Recht
ich warte auf ihn
er ist an einer schweren Krankheit
gestorben
ich erinnere mich an ihn
sie tauscht sich in ihm
er verliebt sich In Sle
er warnt sie vor der Gefahr
Was verstehen Sie unter diesem
.Begriff?
die Warnung vor der Gefahr
(from warnen vor with dat.)
die Erinnerung an seine Mutter
(from erinnern an with-acc.)
.....
.....
ACCUSATIVE
DATIVE
3.
Intralocal/translocal
a)
intralocal with dat.
es hangt tiber dem Sofa
er geht tiber die StraEe
b)
translocal with acc.
sle sitzt auf dem Stuhl
er setzt sich auf das Sofa
die Leiter lehnt am Baum
sle schickt es an seinen Vater
er wohnt in der Stadt
sle hangt das Kleid in den Schrank
c)
vor, neben, unter,
hinter, zwischen
mostly with the dat.
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
d)
4.
includes nouns derived
from these verbs
Adnominal prepositional
phrases in the dative
only (phrases in the
acc. under 2d and 3d)
das Park en auf dem Btirgersteig
(from parken with-dat.)
das Buch auf dem Tisch
der Wagen vor dem Haus
ex>
der Einzug in die neue Wohnung
(from einziehen-With ~cc. )
DATIVE
5.
ACCUSATIVE
Other (independent)
prepositional phrases
a)
uber and auf mostly
with the acc.
ubers Wochenende
uber die Jahrhunderte
b)
an, in, vor, neben
unter, hinter, zwischen
mostly with the dat.
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
vor alle!!!., alleE. DingeE.
neben andere!!!., neben anderen DingeE.
unter andere!!!., unter keinen Umstanden
zwischen den
Feiertage~
zwischen Mann und Frau
-....J
\0
80
As a result of this study, I recommend that we
1)
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
2)
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)
3)
point out that in prepositional phrases of time an, in and vor
are used only in the dative
4)
point out that in adnominal prepositional phrases the dative
used exclusively
5)
point out that in other (independent) prepositional phrases, uber
and auf are used in the accusative and the others are used in the
dative
6)
remember that vor, neben, unter, hinter, zwischen are used over
90% of the time in the dative
1S