～てある
While we have just learned how ～ている may be used to indicate continuous action or status in a particular state, ～てある may similarly indicate a state that remains in place, but the two are quite different in their implications.
Structurally, ～ている and ～てある both utilize an existential verb turned supplementary verb (補助動詞). A supplementary verb is a verb that has lost most if not all of its literal meaning to serve a specific grammatical function. Oftentimes, they lose their original functionality as well.
In the case of ある・いる, they are fundamentally changed from standalone verbs which indicate that something exists to aspect markers1 which indicate exactly how a status persists over time. As for functionality, the basic sentence structure with either ～ている・てある is also not the same as いる・ある individually. Let’s compare the following.
1a. 窓がある。
There is a window.
2. 窓が開いている。
The window is open.
3. 窓が開けてある。
The window has been opened (and is still open).
The first commonalities that can be observed between these sentences tell us a lot about how ～ている・～てある both function.
①All three sentences describe a state of being regarding the window.
②～ている and ～てある both describe the speaker’s representation of what they see before them: “an open window.”
③The “state” of the window “being open” is a result of some sort.
In Ex. 1, all we know from the sentence alone is that there is a window. How it came into being, why it is where the speaker sees it, and so forth are irrelevant. In Ex. 2, similarly, how the window came to be open is left as an enigma. A person could have opened the window just as likely as the wind could have opened it. Whereas in Ex. 3, the window had been undoubtedly opened by some willful agent, and in most contexts, that said willful agent is a person.
Syntactically, we can observe several differences:
i. Though not shown in Ex. 1, the full iteration of its basic sentence structure is X (subject) が A (location) にある.
1b. 窓が部屋にある。
1c. 部屋に窓がある。
1b. There is a window in the room.
1c. In the room, there is a window.
ii. As for Ex. 2 and Ex. 4, the basic sentence structure is “X (subject) が + Z (intransitive verb + ～ている).
4. 窓が壊れている。
The window is broken.
iii. As for Ex. 3, the basic sentence structure is “X’ (object) が Z (stative-transitive verb2 predicate w/ ～てある). It can be more accurately translated as follows:
3. 窓が開けてある。
The window has been opened (by someone and is still open).
Contrast Exs. 1-4 with the basic sentence structure “(X (subject) が) Y (object) を Z (dynamic-transitive verb predicate).
5. 窓を開けた。
(I) opened the window.
～てある: Creating Stative Verbs
Before delving further into the mechanics of ～てある, let’s go over how it is joined with the different verbal classes. Note that this pattern is not used with the copular verb or adjectival predicates.
| Verb Class | 連用形 ＋ ～てある |
| 上一段 | 閉じてある has been closed |
| 下一段 | 開けてある has been opened |
| 五段 | 作ってある has been made |
| サ変 | してある has been done |
| カ変 | ∅ |
Due to 来る neither being transitive nor necessarily always accompanied with a willful agent, 来てある is deemed ungrammatical.
Type I: -AGENT w/ ～てある
Agency (動作主性) is an important concept in understanding how aspect markers like ～てある function. Agency is defined as the thematic relation of the cause/initiator (doer) to an event.
As we have seen so far, the transitive predicate used with ～てある implies that there is a willful agent/initiator (doer) of said action which brought about the state in question.
The agent, however, is not overtly expressed with ～てある, with that implication being handled by ～てある itself. The agent would invariably manifest as the subject, but because the ‘subject’ also functions as the object of the agent’s action and is marked by が, as a consequence of the structure itself being ergative in nature, explicitly mentioning the agent is suppressed (抑制) from the surface structure3 of the sentence.
6. 花が生けてある。
The flowers have been arranged (by someone and are still arranged as such).
In Ex. 6, we know that someone arranged the flowers, but why the person acted in this, or even if the act was entirely intentional, are irrelevant. What is important is the existence of the ‘object’ being affected and how that change (effect) persists.
The lack of an overt agent and the rendering of the object being marked by が does not exclude the possibility of an indirect object from being used in the sentence. In this case, the indirect object is regularly marked by に.
7. 彼女には前もって伝えてある。
She was informed (of that) beforehand.
Grammar Note: “She” has been informed about “that,” and “that” is the object which would otherwise be marked with が if overtly stated.
8. ガラスが割ってある。
The glass has been broken (because of the actions of someone and still is broken).
9. アンケートは集めてある。
The questionnaires have been gathered.
10. ストーブがつけてあります。
The heater was turned on (by someone) and has been kept that way.
11. 木が倒してある。
The tree has been toppled down (by someone).
12. 彼の熱は計ってある。
His temperature was checked (by someone).
13. 晩ご飯が作ってある。
Dinner has been made (by someone).
14. シャツが洗ってある。
The shirt has been washed (by someone).
15. 机に本が置いてある。
The book was placed on the desk (by someone).
16. 荷物が乱雑に積んである。
The luggage was piled up in a clutter (by someone).
It must also be noted that ～てある may also be seen used with the past tense marker ～た, and in doing so, the speaker is describing the scene that they had witnessed, but with the statement being a recollection, whether the state is still ongoing or not is not pertinent.
17. 一階は古本屋に貸してあった。
The first floor had been rented to an old book store.
18. 新聞に書いてあった。
It had been written in the newspaper.
You may even see ～てある in the negative as ～てない, which notably does not have the same intonation as ～て（い）ない4. When this structure is used in the negative, the change/effect that would have transpired has not quite come into fruition.
19. あまり家具が置いてありません。
There has not been much furniture placed (here).
Type II: +Agent w/ ～てある
There is one more distinct grammatical context in which ～てある appears. It is possible for the agent to appear when the agent is oneself and the predicate indicates effectiveness in bringing about some goal. Here, the distinction between ～ている and ～てある may seem unclear, but the interest that the speaker is demonstrating with the action paints a different mental image than if ～ている were used.
20. 元気でいることにしてある。
(I) have (myself) out to be well (even though I’m really not).
21. 僕は健康のために体を鍛えてある。
I have my body well-trained for my health.
22. その時計は五分進めてあります。
(I) have set the clock five minutes forward.
It would go without saying that the verbs used with these two distinct patterns of ～てある do differ considerably on semantic grounds, and as evident in these examples, the basic sentence structure is also different: X (agent) が Y (object) を・に・と Z (transitive predicate). For now, just know that this distinct ～てある, which we will refer to as Type II, exists (See Lesson 214).
- Aspect (相) is a crucial feature of Japanese grammar that cannot be overlooked even as a beginner. Aspect marking is often lumped together with the concept of tense, but in the context of ～てある, it is rather difficult to relate to any one structure in English to it. Though the tense of ～てある would default to the “present perfect (= “has/have been”),” the aspect of ～てある would pertain to how the state borne from some action came about via the willful intent of an agent and how the resultant state remains so; yet, the English translations do not employ “-ing” (the continuous form) despite the continuous state. This, however, is where ～てある・ている naturally form a semantic class which expresses the aspect of ongoing states, which can be viewed as an extension of their existential semantics, with their own implications on being that cannot be fully explained by how English tense/aspect syntactically work. ↩︎
- Merely describing X’ as the subject with ～てある is not entirely accurate. This pattern is just one of many grammatical patterns in Japanese which invokes what is known as ergative grammar. In ergative grammar, the objects of transitive predicates become rendered as subjects when the predicate is rendered intransitive. ある imposes its intransitivity onto the transitive predicates utilized in ～てある, thus, causing this change in particle usage. As such, X’ can be viewed as both the subject and the object depending on which angle you view the construction. As a subject, X’ is what is experiencing the state, but it is also the object of the implied agent’s action which resulted in said state being described as if it were the subject. ↩︎
- “Surface structures” (表層構造) are the versions of sentences that are actually uttered in speech. ↩︎
- When ～ていない is contracted to ～てない, the intonation of ～ない itself is a continuation of the pattern attributed to the verb structure as one unit, whereas when ～てない is the negative form of ～てある, ある maintains its pitch nucleus on the first mora, which is naturally applied to ない. ↩︎