Ricerc@Sapienza

Secondary, non-prototypical prepositions have the form of an adverb, adjective, verb, noun or prepositional phrase; in some cases the etymology is only partially transparent. Most prepositions govern the genitive but can also be constructed with the dative. The difference between the two cases is considered essentially stylistic, the dative being associated with oral and informal language. For some prepositions, however, both cases are equally accepted in standard language. Moreover, a group of prepositions should govern only dative, but in everyday language also genitive can be found.

Primary, prototypical prepositions in German govern accusative and dative. The difference between the two cases is semantically motivated, not only for the prepositions governing two cases (an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen), but also for prepositions allowing one option: accusative for bis, durch, für, gegen, ohne, um; dative for ab, aus, bei, mit, nach, seit, von, zu. Accusative appears to be associated with goal-orientedness and completeness, the dative represents an elsewhere condition.