According to DWDS.de, "abmahnen" comes with Dativ:
jmdm. von einem Vorhaben (dringend) abmahnen
But in many other resources like in dict.cc, I have found that the verb actually comes with Akkusativ. So my question is, which one is right??
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Sign up to join this communityAccording to DWDS.de, "abmahnen" comes with Dativ:
jmdm. von einem Vorhaben (dringend) abmahnen
But in many other resources like in dict.cc, I have found that the verb actually comes with Akkusativ. So my question is, which one is right??
tl;dr: use accusative.
The entry in DWDS is outdated, it is from 1967 if I'm reading the page right, and its examples that exclusively use dative seem to be misleading. It does not yet contain the newer use of abmahnen in law that is much more frequent now. Almost all the usage examples further down on the DWDS page reflect the use in law.
Wiktionary and Duden show two meanings:
Wiktionary: abmahnen
(1) gehoben: jemanden vor etwas warnen und versuchen, ihn davon abzubringen
(2) Recht: jemanden formal auffordern, ein bestimmtes Verhalten künftig zu unterlassen
When used with the older meaning (1), abmahnen goes with accusative or, much less commonly, dative. When used with meaning (2), it goes with accusative.
Meaning (1):
Du würdest wohl tun, deinen Schwager [Akkusativ] von seinem rebellischen Vorhaben abzumahnen. [aus Goethe: Götz von Berlichingen]
but also
Wie dringlich die Stimme war seiner Brust, die ihm [Dativ] wispernd abmahnte, sich einzustellen, das läßt sich denken [aus Th. Mann: Joseph u. seine Brüder]
Meaning (2):
Die Rechtsanwaltskanzlei Gierig & Hansel hat in diesem Jahr schon 120 Firmen (Akkusativ) wegen der Impressumspflicht auf Webseiten abgemahnt.
Das Café mahnte den Barista wegen Unpünktlichkeit ab.