Spontaneity: ～（ら）れる & ～える
Spontaneity (自発態) is a mode of verbal expression in which an act(ion) is portrayed not as something performed by a person with active intent, but rather as a phenomenon or process that occurs naturally or of its own accord.
Typically, for active-voice verbs denoting actions or movements, the agent (=doer) is marked by the nominative case (indicated by the particle が), while the patient (=object of the action) in transitive verbs is marked in the accusative case (indicated by the particle を); however, since this mode of expression tends to convey the sense that a specific individual is performing said actions with deliberate intent, “spontaneous” expressions are sometimes employed instead. These serve to avoid that implication by conveying the nuance that “such action is natural, and anyone else would likely do or behave the same way.”
Spontaneity w/ ～（ら）れる
In addition to marking the passive voice, the auxiliary verbs ～られる and ～れる may also indicate spontaneity. As mentioned in the preface, spontaneous actions occur independently of the agent’s intent. Consequently, we find that subjects (=doer) of spontaneous verbs (自発動詞) marked by the particle に, whereas the object1 is marked by が.
Spontaneity is most often marked with verbs pertaining to thoughts, emotions, and feelings. Common examples include: 思う (to think/be in a state of mind) → 思われる, 悔やむ (to lament) → 悔やまれる, 偲ぶ (to reminisce) → 偲ばれる, etc2.
1. 乱暴で乱暴で行く先が案じられる、と母が云った。
My mother would tell me, “You are so reckless—so wild—that I worry about where you are headed.”
From 『坊ちゃん』by 夏目漱石.
2. 昔のことがふと思い出された。
Memories of the past suddenly came to mind.
3. 親戚でもないので、家族葬に出席するのも憚られて・・・でもお別れだけはしたいとお線香を手向けるために斎場に行ってきました。
Since I’m not related to them, I felt it’d be inappropriate of me to attend their private family funeral… but, I still wanted to say my final goodbyes, so I visited the funeral hall to offer incense.
4. 夕雲を見れば、遠い故郷が偲ばれる。
Gazing at the evening clouds, I find myself longing for my distant hometown.
5. スタッフさんたちの意気込みが感じられた。
I could sense the staff’s ardor.
6. 2回目が良かっただけに小さな失敗が悔やまれる。
It is all the more regrettable that a minor slip-up occurred, given how well the second attempt went.
7. 秋の気配が感じられた。
There was a hint of fall in the air.
8. 僕にはどうしてもそう思われる。
To me, it simply seems that way.
9. いかにも不思議に思われた。
It struck (me) as truly mysterious.
Grammatical Limitations of Spontaneity w/ ～（ら）れる
As demonstrated by the sentences we have seen thus far, syntactically speaking, by nature, a sentence exhibiting spontaneity grammar is necessarily in the first person, as it is the speaker themselves who is the experiencer of the action of thought/feeling being expressed as occurring naturally. However, by the addition of a modal auxiliary or in the context of narration, this first-person restriction can be alleviated.
10. 遼平君には、故郷が懐かしく思い出されるらしい。
It seems that Ryohei-kun fondly reminisces about his hometown.
11. 流浪人は茫然と立ち上がって、遠い目をした。捨てたはずの故郷が懐かしく思い出された。
The wanderer stood up in a daze, gazing out into the distance. He was fondly reminiscing about the hometown which he had thought he had left behind for good.
As for the tense of the spontaneity verb itself, it may manifest in either the non-past or the past tense. In the case of the non-past, a spontaneity verbal predicate would either indicate a repetitive, habitual action pertaining to one’s mind or one that has occurred simultaneously with the act of speaking.
12. 最近、なぜか故郷が無性に懐かしく思い出される。(Repetitive/Habitual Spontaneity)
For some reason, lately, I find myself feeling an overwhelming nostalgia for my hometown.
13. 昨日はなぜか故郷が懐かしく思い出された。
For some reason, I found myself thinking fondly of my hometown yesterday.
Meanwhile, ～ている is quite unnatural with spontaneity verbal predicates, as this aspect marker is far too objective in stating what is currently ongoing to match the spontaneous nature of these verbs. Moreover, it is also fairly unnatural to depict spontaneity verbal predicates in the negative, as the idea is to capture an emotion/thought as it naturally occurs, which would not be possible if the thought were to not occur in the first place.
Even so, these grammatical limitations are not true of the spontaneity verbal predicates created via the auxiliary ～える, which we will soon learn about in this lesson. These verbs have less restrictions placed on them, as their agents are more “present.”
Spontaneity vs Potential
Spontaneity may come off as being strikingly similar to expressing potential. Indeed, in examples like Exs. 5-6 or Ex. 14 below, it is fairly hard to avoid using the word “could” in the possible English translations. However, there is still a unique difference in how agency is perceived. Typically, true potential expressions in Japanese endow control over the execution of said potential to the agent. In other words, if the agent can do it, then when they do, they are putting that ability into action. Whereas, in the case of spontaneity structures like 感じられた, Ex. 14, sensing that someone is behind the door occurs without the agent purposefully executing their sensory systems to make that assessment. The point is that the perception has occurred naturally.
14. （私には）扉の向こうからは人の気配が感じられた。
The presence of a person could be felt from behind the door.
(I) could sense a human presence from behind the door.
Now, as for these two translations for Ex. 14 differ, the way in which the agent is perceived becomes key. Presumably, it is the speaker sensing the person behind the door; thus, we would expect （私には）represented somehow in the deep structure of their statement, leading to the second translation. Yet, what is most often the case with spontaneity verbs is that by naturally occurring to the speaker, the impression is that it could happen to anyone, and it is this implication which leads to the first translation.
Spontaneity vs Passive Voice
Spontaneity is also acutely similar to the passive voice. Once again, though, how agency is perceived is notably different. In Ex. 15, for instance, the “eager awaiting” of the completion of something is so naturally the case that it is presumed that everyone is naturally of the same mindset. Moreover, in the passive voice, it it still the case that agent willfully acted to bring about the said result, whereas with 自発動詞, volition is either negligible or non-existent.
15. 住民の健康を守る要であり、完成が待たれます。
(It) will serve as the linchpin for safeguarding the health of our residents, and its completion is eagerly awaited.
From what we have seen, if spontaneity, potential, and the passive voice were ordered based on the degree of the agent’s willful execution of the action from least actively involved (low volition) to most actively involved (high volition), then the ordering would be as such: spontaneity > potential > passive voice.
聞こえる & 見える
In addition to the use of the ～（ら）れる, there also exists a far smaller subset of spontaneity verbs constructed via the auxiliary ～える, with 聞こえる and 見える serving as primary examples.
聞こえる and 見える themselves do not denote potential3; rather, they describe how their respective senses without the agent (=experiencer’s) control occur naturally. In other words, it just so happens that you can see or hear something. This means that these verbs are drastically different to their base verbs’ potential forms—聞ける and 見られる respectively—which do indicate that the agent can and is executing their ability of utilizing those senses.
For lack of better wording in English, however, the use of the word “can” is often employed out of necessity, and it is because of this affiliation that 聞こえる and 見える must also be mentioned in the same breath as potential grammar so as to disassociate them from the start.
16. 雨（の）音の中でも彼らの声が聞こえた。
I could hear their voices even in the middle of the rain.
17. 興奮しているように見えます。
(He) looks like he’s excited.
18. 魚は音が聞こえると思う？
Do you think that fish hear sounds?
19. 映画館で今黒沢の映画が見られます。
You can now see Kurosawa’s movies in theaters.
20. 隣のテレビの音が聞こえる。
I can hear the neighbor’s television.
21. 昨日は香具山が見えたが、今日は見えない。
I could see Mt. Kaguyama yesterday, but I am not able to see it today.
22. 年齢相応に見える。
To look one’s age.
23. 降り出しそうに見える。
It appears that it’s going to rain.
24. ヘッドホンからサウンドが聞こえません。
I cannot (= do not) hear sound from my headphones.
One thing that must also be noted is that the objects of 見える and 聞こえる, or for any 自発動詞 for that matter, must be tangible and concrete as opposed to an abstract concept. This is because abstract concepts require considerable work by an agent to be handled, thus a high degree of volition, which is incompatible with the notion of spontaneity.
25. 他の国でも、少子化の傾向が｛見られる 〇・見える X｝。
You can see a declining birth rate trend in other countries too.
26a. 部屋からは紅葉も見えるそうだ。
26b. 部屋からは紅葉も見られるそうだ。
26a. They say the fall colors are visible from the room.
26b. They say you can see the fall colors from the room.
Exclamatory Use of Spontaneity Verbs
Interjections are exclamatory by nature, and as redundant as that may be, it is the perfect environment for which spontaneous events may occur, therefore brought about without the intervention of volition on the part of a willful agent.
27. ほら、見て！火星が見えるぞ！
Hey, look! It’s Mars! (= “you can see Mars!”)
28. あ、虹が見えたよ！
Ah, there’s a rainbow!
29. じ、地鳴らしが聞こえる！
I-it’s the rumbling! (= “y-you can hear the rumbling!”)
目が見える vs 目に見える
It may strike as odd that the phrase 目が見える—along with its negative iteration 目が見えない and means of occurrence 目の見え方—are not interpreted with [目] as the object, but rather, the agent of seeing. Eyes naturally ought to be able to see, and so it works neatly as an agent of the spontaneity verb form 見える.
30. 目が見えにくくなった4 。
It became harder for them) to see.
Literally: As for (them), their eyesight became poor.
31. 右目があまりよく見えないらしい。
He apparently can’t see very well with his right eye.
Literally: As for him, his right eye can’t see very well.
32. どうして目は見えるの？
Why can we see?
Literally: Why do the eyes see?
33. 急に目の見え方がおかしくなりました。
My vision suddenly become distorted.
Literally: The way in which my eyes saw (things) suddenly became distorted.
As these translations indicate, it is all too tempting to try to rewrite the spontaneity expression in Japanese in a way that endows the person of the eyes in question with the ability of sight, in which case the eyes would be treated as an instrument to sight. It turns out, though, that eyesight can still be expressed as such in Japanese.
34. 目でものが見える仕組みは、カメラで映像を映す仕組みとよく似ています。
The mechanism by which we see things with our eyes is very similar to the mechanism by which a camera captures images.
More importantly, however, is how 目 is being marked with が as opposed to に, which would be the typical choice. Putting aside the exact implication choosing が to mark 目 has for one moment, the consequence of choosing に, which is still valid, produces a completely different interpretation:
- 目が見える: The eye(s) in a state of naturally seeing—the functionality of the eyes.
- 目に見える: Discerning via sight/observation in a physical or metaphorical sense.
The choice of に as the agent marker (=experiencer) redirects the focus to the consequence of the action naturally occurring, which in this case is discernment. Also, it is not the case that the “eyes” themselves discern but rather the person, but in English also possesses similar expressions such as the “eyes of the beholder.” Meanwhile, が as a focus marker has it that the action, though naturally occurring, pertains only to the functionality behind the spontaneous observations had. Thus, it cannot be misconstrued as a semantic object in this expression.
35. 〇〇政権は目に見えて、甚大な脅威となっている。
The ## Administration has clearly become a grave threat.
It is also worth noting that when 目 is treated explicitly as an instrument to actively see, not only is 目 understandably marked by the case particle で to that effect, but it is also the case that the agent’s volition is being highlighted. Thus, 目で見られる is to be expected instead of 目に見える.
36. 真珠が｛目・肉眼｝で見られるほどの大きさになった。
The pearl has grown big enough to be seen by the naked eye.
耳が聞こえる vs 耳に聞こえる
Similarly to 目が見える, 耳が聞こえる pertains to the functionality of the ears. However, the replacement of が for に is not so drastic. Rather, when 耳に聞こえる is employed, the expression is not idiomatic, and instead allows for the natural object of hearing to manifest in tandem with the overt agent of hearing, our ears.
37. 片側の耳が聞こえない。
(I) cannot hear out one ear.
38. その結果、心臓の鼓動が耳に聞こえる脈動性耳鳴りが起こります。
As a result, pulsatile tinnitus occurs, in which one’s heartbeat can be heard in the ears.
As demonstrated by Ex. 38, に may also be viewed as the location where hearing naturally occurs. The same can be said about vision with the eyes in 目に見える.
～て見える vs ～て見られる
Referring back to the volition spectrum of “spontaneity > potential > passive voice” for least to most volition involvement by the agent, it is important to note that the verbs 見える and 見られる are at opposite ends of this spectrum when seen after the particle て, with 見える, of course, being spontaneous in nature with 見られる necessarily interpreted in the passive voice:
- ～て見える: The adverbial clause modifying 見える pertains to a state that the agent is presumably made aware of spontaneously without the influence of an external force, whether that be one’s own volition or somebody else’s.
- ～て見られる: The adverbial clause modifying 見られる pertains to an observation rendered in the passive voice, whereby the semantic object being perceived must be human.
39a. 頬がこけて、以前より老けて見える。
39b. 頬がこけて、以前より老けて見られる。
39a. (Their) cheeks have sunken and (they) look older than before.
39b. (Their) cheeks have sunken, and (they) are seen as older than before.
40. 宙に浮いて｛見える 〇・見られる X｝ボールってあっちこっちにあるじゃないか。あれに技を当てて破壊すると、中から入手が難しいレアアイテムをゲットできることがあるよ。
You know those balls that look like they’re floating in mid-air—the ones you see scattered all over the place? If you hit them with moves and destroy them, you might just get your hands on rare items that would otherwise be hard to obtain.
思える
思える5 is another unique 自発動詞 created with the auxiliary ～える, with a very strong subjective bias to depict a person’s individual emotions=thoughts that are naturally conjured up in a given circumstance.
41. 到底、良い作品とは思えません。
It simply does not strike me as a good work.
More so than ～と思える, ～のように思える is used far more frequently, which further amplifies the subjectiveness of the thought at hand.
42. 私には彼が犯人のように思える。
He strikes me as the culprit.
While etymologically linked to 思われる, 思われる possesses all four usages of the auxiliary ～（ら）れる: passive voice > spontaneity > potential > respect (honorific marker). When viewed as a 自発動詞, 思われる indicates a strong objective take on what would generally be the logical conclusion, which is why it is used heavily in reports and papers6.
As for how 思われる attaches to the preceding clause, we see that either adverbial expressions or a citation particle of some kind is typically at play, with ～ように・そうに being quite common as is also the case with 思える.
43. それぞれの漢字の意味を考えてみると名前としては少しく妙に思われる。
If one considers the meanings of the individual kanji, it will strike one as being a somewhat peculiar name.
44. 転倒さえなかったらと残念に思われてならない。
I cannot help but feel a deep sense of regret—if only that fall hadn’t happened.
45. 生活に苦しみながらも、未来への望みに燃えた熱気が、消費水準が上昇するにつれて消えていったように思われてならない。
I cannot help but feel as though excitement for the future—which had burned so brightly even amidst the struggles of daily life—seems to have faded away as standard of living rose.
46. 家族もいるのに孤独死なんて、かわいそうに思われてならない。
I cannot help but feel profound pity at the thought of someone dying alone, despite having family.
泣ける & 笑える
Incidentally, 泣ける and 笑える happen to indicate spontaneous crying and laughter respectively. Out of necessity, it may be the case that the English translation used to translate these expressions may, in fact, use potential grammar. However, the agency dynamic unique to spontaneity verbs—which is that the action comes to them naturally without the execution of their willpower—remains to be the case regardless of how they are inevitably reproduced in English.
47. びっくりするくらい泣けてきたわ。
I ended up crying an astonishing amount.
48. これは本当に泣ける映画だよ。
This is a real tear-jerker of a movie.
49. 自然に笑える映画を作ってみてください。
Try making a movie which one would naturally laugh to.
50. さんざん頑張った結果がこれだとは笑える話だ。
It’s laughable that this is the result of all that hard work.
Etymologically, though, it is believed that these two instances do stem from the identical potential forms of these verbs, as they did not exist prior to the emergence of the independent potential forms of 五段 verbs.
～（さ）せられる ⇒ Spontaneity Interpretation
The ability of ～（ら）れる to indicate both the passive voice and spontaneity has prompted many an educator to label its instances of spontaneity as being exemplary of a so-called “自発の受け身,” perhaps for the sake of simplicity due to the clear and present morphological restraint had, at least when the auxiliaries ～られる・れる are invoked. However, as we have learned, the notion of agency manifests quite differently between these two usages:
Whereas the passive voice necessitates that there be an agent who was actively responsible for the resultant state, a spontaneous structure posits that the agent had no active part in the natural occurrence of the state at hand.
It just so happens that this dichotomy can also be found with ～（さ）せられる. While this is certainly how the passive-causative is marked, instances of it can be “spontaneous” in nature. Though it is tempting to label this as the “自発の使役受身” in Japanese out of brevity, it is still important to note that the “external force” being applied to the subject of these sentences is not like those of a typical “passive-causative” sentence. These “external forces” are tangible yet notably non-human entities.
51. 最近、毎日ひどい頭痛に悩まされている。
I’ve been suffering from severe headaches every day as of late.
52. 子供の成長にはいつも驚かせられる。
I am always amazed at how children grow.
53. このレッスンを読んで、考えさせられた。
Reading this lesson really gave me food for thought.
Literally: Reading this lesson, (it) had me thinking.
【参照】
現代日本語文法② by 日本語記述文法研究会
- Spontaneity structures in Japanese are ergative-like in nature, whereby these objects are treated no differently than the subjects of intransitive verbs due to how agency does not control the execution of the agent. ↩︎
- Spontaneity is not compatible with verbs intrinsically tied to absolute control of execution (willpower) on the part of the agent—食べる, 飲む, 歩く, etc. ↩︎
- The spontaneity-marking auxiliary ～える seen in a limited capacity in Modern Japanese derives from the auxiliary verb ～ゆ found in Old Japanese, which over time became supplanted by the predecessors of the modern ～られる and ～れる. In addition to the spontaneity verbs showcased in this lesson, the /-yu/ in 燃ゆ = 燃える, 消ゆ = 消える, etc. is, in fact, the same morpheme. ↩︎
- The use of ～にくい after 見える・聞こえる indicates that the sensory phenomenon respectively denoted by them is not occurring sufficiently. ↩︎
- In Classical Japanese, 思える took the form 思ほゆ. ↩︎
- Conversely, while objective in nature, readers might feel as though a conclusion is being thrust upon them if the spontaneity of that conclusion is not borne out by the argument at hand, in which case the speaker’s own take would be coming out too strongly despite the use of this structure. ↩︎