Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod

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Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (English: The Dative is the Death of the Genitive) is a series of books by Bastian Sick which deal in an entertaining manner with unappealing or clumsy use of the German language, as well as areas of contention in grammar, orthography, and punctuation.

Contents

Origins

The books are collections of the author’s column 'Zwiebelfisch', which appeared from 2003 to 2012 in Spiegel Online . [1] Since February 2005 it also appeared in print in Der Spiegel's monthly culture supplement. The column's title, literally 'onion fish', is a printers' term for a single character with an incorrect font in a block of text. [2] [3] [4] The series consists of six volumes, all of which reached the top of the book sales lists, with the first volume selling more than 1.5 million copies within two years.

The title, Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod (English: the dative is the death of the genitive) is a way of saying Der Dativ ist der Tod des Genitivs or Der Dativ ist des Genitivs Tod, a reference to a linguistic phenomenon in certain dialects of German where a noun in genitive case is replaced by a possessive adjective and noun in the dative case (see his genitive).

Reception

In several German states, articles from the books have been used officially as teaching materials, and—according to Sick's foreword of August 2005, the series has been added to the set text list for the Abitur in Saarland. The material in the book series has been adapted into a DVD, a board game, a computer game and into audiobooks.

On the other hand, the linguists Vilmos Ágel, Manfred Kaluza and André Meinunger think that Sick's books are not useful for teaching German because they contain factual errors, often just deal with irrelevant nitpicking, and don't give sufficient proof of why something Sick deems wrong should be wrong. [5] [6] [7]

Book titles

DVD title

Game titles

  1. ↑ Spiegel Online, ‘Zwiebelfisch’ column. Quote: "Seit Mai 2003 ist Bastian Sick Autor der Kolumne 'Zwiebelfisch'. Die zugehörigen Bücher (u.a. 'Der Dativ ist dem Genitiv sein Tod', 'Happy Aua') wurden zu Bestsellern."
  2. ↑ duden.de: Zwiebelfisch
  3. ↑ wissen.de-Wörterbuch: Zwiebelfisch
  4. ↑ DWDS: Zwiebelfisch
  5. ↑ Vilmos Ágel Bastian Sick und die Grammatik. Ein ungleiches Duell – Informationen Deutsch als Fremdsprache, 35. Jg, Heft 1, 2008, S. 64–84
  6. ↑ Manfred Kaluza: „Der Laie ist dem Linguisten sein Feind“. Anmerkungen zur Auseinandersetzung um Bastian Sicks Sprachkolumnen – Informationen Deutsch als Fremdsprache, 35. Jg, Heft 4, 2008, S. 432–442
  7. ↑ "Sick of Sick?".

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