Breakdown of Der Chef rühmt sich keineswegs der Bestechung.
der Chef
the boss (male)
keineswegs
by no means
die Bestechung
the bribery
sich rühmen
to boast of
Questions & Answers about Der Chef rühmt sich keineswegs der Bestechung.
Why is "of the bribery" translated as der Bestechung without a preposition like von?
The verb sich rühmen (to boast) is a special reflexive verb that strictly requires a genitive object to express what someone is boasting about. Because die Bestechung is a feminine noun, its genitive form is der Bestechung. The case itself handles the meaning of "of," so no preposition is needed.
Since sich rühmen takes a genitive object, what case is the reflexive pronoun sich in?
It is in the accusative case. The grammatical structure is sich (Akk) einer Sache (Gen) rühmen. With these special genitive-requiring verbs, the reflexive pronoun is almost always accusative. Another classic, formal example you might see is sich erinnern (to remember): Ich erinnere mich (Akk) dieses Tages (Gen).
Is keineswegs related to the genitive case too?
Historically, yes! The -s at the end of keineswegs (by no means / literally "of no way") is an old "adverbial genitive" used to turn nouns into adverbs. You have actually been using this since your beginner days with time words like morgens (in the mornings) and directional words like unterwegs (on the way).
Would people actually use this genitive structure in everyday spoken German?