my question is: Why not Kann Merz Rechtspopulist?
The headlines of the form "Kann Scholz Kanzler" are a joke, which does not work so well when the advertised capability requires a more complex construction.
- What is the missing transitive verb indicated by the accusative case or is den Rechtspopulisten in the dative?
Accusative geben or spielen.
It is a common expression in the theatre, e.g. den Hitler geben or Hitler spielen. In that case it is obvious that nobody wants to really become Hitler.
In colloquial speech the meaning is broader, ein gutes Bild abgeben, eine bedeutende Rolle spielen, sich irgendwie aufführen, den Betroffenen mimen etc.
It is not always clear to which extent such phrasing developed wider semantics out of the theater or, conversely, had existed earlier to develop a narrow sense in theater. To amend the text with “spielen” is not necessarily negative, but it very well might imply that politics is a game show.
alternative: none
Motivations for brevity are various. Headlines have a high demand for brevity. Colloquial speech might be reductive when no specific standard verb to complete the sentence exists.
Können is known to work as a full verb: "ich kann Deutsch." This appears to stem from its relation with kennen and it might mean “speak” as such. This is relevant in acting where a large part of the job is memorizing lines. So one might say: Er kann den Faust (indeed, German vortragen "to recite, present" is compatible with to portrait both phonologically and, for what it's worth, semantically). This also holds in politics: Er kann Verkehrsrecht. It can be extended to groups of people: Er kann sowohl Rap als auch Schlager ... (quotation needed).
One could not until recently say, "Ich kann Fahrrad [fahren]". Now one can "Cloud", for example. That's definitely a broader phenomenon.
- By the way: English memes are borrowed into German in a similar way: laughs in French ~ lacht auf Französisch translates very well, but laughs in Computer are intentionally absurd. This comes in part from image macros of closed captions to verbalize audible contextual clues in movies (it seems).
- Is the difference between the two headlines because Kanzler is a job and Rechtspopulist is not?
I don't really think so. It appears to be a matter of style.
Kanzler is a title. For example, when Ratzinger was elected pope, news papers titled Wir sind Papst. This is alluding to achievements, like Weltmeister sein.
Corollary: For an actor to embody a role to the point that one might say he has become Death can be the ultimate compliment, a title indeed. As said, this isn't always desirable.
Rechtspopulist may be in a different typological category because it is not a unique position, though it could be used in a rigid hierarchy as title such as chief propagandist "Reichspropagandaleiter" Josef Göbbels.
It is a label, but still, somebody could embody the respective qualities in the genre to the point of becoming the role model. I guess this might be implied. The more or less obvious allusion to Kanzler could point to plans for Friedrich Merz to enter in or meddle otherwise in elections.
Corollary: That's speculation and the news are wise to be as reserved as possible.
That said, the most striking difference between the headlines is in the morphosemantics: to have a good command of alt-right rhetoric is a capability, which can be described by a topic noun in a kann-construction. So the phrase Kann Merz Rechtspopul[…] would be emended with the uncountable noun Rechtspopulismus. This I'm sure is an entirely different type of noun from Kanzler.
However, that is not the question. The choice of accusative, “den Rechtspopulisten”, is a natural alternative which sounds classy. It appeals to the conservative reader by use of more conservative grammar, so to speak.
- Are both formulations grammatical?
No, Scholz kann Kanzler is not correct. It cannot be negated. Compare Ich kann kein Deutsch, ich habe den Faust nicht auswendig drauf, was kann ich überhaupt:
† Ich kann [nicht/kein] Kanzler.
† Ich kann Kanzler [nicht].
It is possibly acceptable in a different word order:
? Kanzler kann er überhaupt nicht.
What I'm trying to say is that the variation is computationally too expensive to be easily digestible. Remoteness of constituent parts in a sentence (tree diagram) can inhibit understanding: "For instance, particle verbs in English don't like to have verb and particle separated too far." (@GregLee in response to @JKnappen on linguistics.SE, What constitutes a Long Distance Dependency, and how can it be quantified?; the other answer speaking of a parasitic “gap” might be relevant, but I am not a linguist by any means).
Even if we accept one form, which is fairly simple, the analogy to another form does not always work.
To me it feels like -rechts- is enough to separate populist from the verb kann. This becomes more obvious when negation is amended.
Further discussion exceeds my ability, to be honest. Especially the homophony of inf. and acc. -en is confusing. The notion that there are different types to be analyzed for Kanzler and den Rechtspopulisten or, as I would argue, den recht[est]en Populisten, is well meaningful.
regarding the additional examples
- Kann Flick Bundestrainer, haben sie sich in Deutschland gefragt,
- Kann Ursula von der Leyen EU-Kommissionspräsidentin?
These may be emended with a comma. Apposition is quite common with titles and the comma is optional as are other typographies.
Frau von der Leyen (EU-Kommissionspräsidentin) hat gestern ...
In this view, the Matrix clause is elliptic:
Kann Frau von der Leyen […]?
Such constructions exist: ich kann nicht mehr; kann er denn [du weißt schon …]?, könnten Sie vielleicht [zur Abwechslung mal behilflich sein, aus dem Weg gehen]? etc. (also Englisch: Could you …; Could you not?)
This doesn't work when Hansi Flick isn't Bundestrainer yet (he became coach of the national team in the same year the quote is from). One would have to ask, wird er Bundestrainer [werden]? Wird er ein Populist werden?
Nur eine Randnotiz ist an der Stelle das eher kindersprachliche darf ich die Marmelade, kann ich ein Eis. Jüngst stand übrigens "Darf er so?" zur Wahl als Jugendwort des Jahres.
Darf Merz rechts-...? Ist eh subjektiv. Die einen rufen ja, die andern sagen HDF!
