Hi Bunsuke Sensei, Thank you very much for your kind answer!! I used to equate "ている" with something like "have/has been doing" or "have/has done", or a certain state/situation, but looks like it expresses a lot more than that. Thank you for your detailed answer! :)
Hi Emma, of course, anytime! It think your understanding of ～ている is solid! In general, I would say there are three functions: durative (彼は今食べている/he is eating now); habit (彼はいつも食べている/he is always eating); result (彼は日本に住んでいる; he lives in Japan). Perhaps there are a few other functions, but off the top of my head, those are the most important ones. However, when translating into English, a simple past tense sometimes makes more sense in specific contexts. In those cases, it wouldn't make sense to adhere too strictly to these 'textbook' functions, at least in my view.
Hi Emma, thank you for this question. It's a great question, that I feel deserves its own book. The short answer is that the narrator creates tension by using the present tense and durative form. He is drawing the scene from memory and presents it as if it is happening before his eyes ("the person across the room is asking..."/"when the nurse replies... he asks ...", etc.) This gives the scene a sense of immediacy.
I suppose there is a similar phenomenon in English (e.g. "he walked down the hall, opened the door...all of a sudden a ghost appears."). But I feel that in English it's much more difficult to switch between past and present tense than in Japanese.
There was a comment about the perception of time in my first year grammar textbook that always stuck with me. I'll translate the relevant passage for you from Dutch: "In modern Japanese language the verb in the rentaikei form may, depending on the context, be translated into a present, future, or past tense. This is due to the fact that Japanese verb tenses work differently from those in Indo-European languages such as Dutch. As such, when it comes to Japanese it may be more appropriate to speak of 'aspects' (unique or general, unfinished or finished actions) than of tenses (present, past, future)."
Of course, this is from an entry level textbook that aims to make people from a linguistically European background aware of a different form of time perception, so it may not be a satisfying explanation, but I feel this idea of 'aspect' vs. 'tense' is useful in understanding how verb tenses in Japanese work, and why present tenses in the source language turn into past tenses in a target language.
This explains why you often see authors shift between past, future or durative tenses per sentence, without it being problematic. If you were to do the same in English, you would drive the reader mad. This is also why I chose to use the past tense in my English translation.
Hope this at least begins to answer your question.
大変勉強になりました！ありがとうございます
Hi Bunsuke Sensei, Thank you very much for your kind answer!! I used to equate "ている" with something like "have/has been doing" or "have/has done", or a certain state/situation, but looks like it expresses a lot more than that. Thank you for your detailed answer! :)
Hi Emma, of course, anytime! It think your understanding of ～ている is solid! In general, I would say there are three functions: durative (彼は今食べている/he is eating now); habit (彼はいつも食べている/he is always eating); result (彼は日本に住んでいる; he lives in Japan). Perhaps there are a few other functions, but off the top of my head, those are the most important ones. However, when translating into English, a simple past tense sometimes makes more sense in specific contexts. In those cases, it wouldn't make sense to adhere too strictly to these 'textbook' functions, at least in my view.
Bunsuke san, Why is it ”尋ねている” not simply past tense”尋ねました”? thank you! :)
Hi Emma, thank you for this question. It's a great question, that I feel deserves its own book. The short answer is that the narrator creates tension by using the present tense and durative form. He is drawing the scene from memory and presents it as if it is happening before his eyes ("the person across the room is asking..."/"when the nurse replies... he asks ...", etc.) This gives the scene a sense of immediacy.
I suppose there is a similar phenomenon in English (e.g. "he walked down the hall, opened the door...all of a sudden a ghost appears."). But I feel that in English it's much more difficult to switch between past and present tense than in Japanese.
There was a comment about the perception of time in my first year grammar textbook that always stuck with me. I'll translate the relevant passage for you from Dutch: "In modern Japanese language the verb in the rentaikei form may, depending on the context, be translated into a present, future, or past tense. This is due to the fact that Japanese verb tenses work differently from those in Indo-European languages such as Dutch. As such, when it comes to Japanese it may be more appropriate to speak of 'aspects' (unique or general, unfinished or finished actions) than of tenses (present, past, future)."
Of course, this is from an entry level textbook that aims to make people from a linguistically European background aware of a different form of time perception, so it may not be a satisfying explanation, but I feel this idea of 'aspect' vs. 'tense' is useful in understanding how verb tenses in Japanese work, and why present tenses in the source language turn into past tenses in a target language.
This explains why you often see authors shift between past, future or durative tenses per sentence, without it being problematic. If you were to do the same in English, you would drive the reader mad. This is also why I chose to use the past tense in my English translation.
Hope this at least begins to answer your question.