Structures of the sympathetic dative in German: dative or also “sympathetic accusative”?

Abstract

This work looks at different sentence patterns used in German in order to highlight verbal actions associated with parts of the body in the specific case that they are referred to within the framework of an adverbial constituent. Therefore, this article defines four constants or syntactic models, two comprised of the dative as second actant and two comprised of the accusative, also as second actant, which share common traits in such a way that, based on the role of “possessive dative” that traditional German grammar gives the two models with the dative, especially the first of these (NOM, ACC, ADV EST) in sentences such as er klopft mir auf die Schulter, we can also affirm that the two patterns with the accusative would be equally “possessive” and, therefore, it would be possible to talk about a “sympathetic accusative” in the German language.