Information Law Possum (discontinued)

The spread of anglicisms in the German language sometimes leads to grammatical questions.

For instance, in business jargon, the word “Implikationen” more and more replaces the good old “Auswirkungen” (implications). “Auswirkungen” is used with the preposition “auf”, “implications” with “for” (literally: “für”). What about “Implikationen”?

Here’s what Google says:

• German websites: “Implikationen für”:”Implikationen auf” = 24:1
• Swiss and Austrian websites: “Implikationen für”:”Implikationen auf” = 32:1.

Thus, the English preposition dominates, and it dominates more in Switzerland and Austria. My take on it is that the speakers from bigger countries (Germany has roughly 16 times more German speakers than Switzerland and 9 times more than Austria) are a bit more reluctant to adopt foreign grammatical structures.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 6:01 am and is filed under Miscellaneous.