Saturday, August 24, 2019

grammar - Why is the passive form used in this sentence?



The following sentence uses 感じられ which I understand to be the continuative passive form of the verb 感じる - "to feel". Why is this form used here?



たった1分がものすごく長く感じられ
時間は
はっきりとした悪意をもって
僕の上をゆっくりと流れていった。



My guess is that this is an example of "indirect passive" or "suffering passive", but I am at a loss as to how it exactly works here.


Am I right to assume that the (implied) subject in the first part (up to 感じられ) of this sentence is the speaker and he "does the feeling"? If so, why would it be passive?



Answer




The られる in 感じられ(る) here is not passive (受け身) but spontaneous (自発).


The auxiliary (助動詞) 「れる/られる」 has four meanings: 「受け身」(passive), 「尊敬」(honorific), 「可能」(potential), and 「自発」(spontaneous).


Some examples of spontaneous れる/られる:




  • [故郷]{こきょう}に[残]{のこ}した両親のことが[思]{おも}い[出]{だ}される (デジタル大辞泉)

  • 人の[気配]{けはい}が感じられる (明鏡国語辞典「られる」❷自発)

  • [行]{ゆ}く[先]{さき}が[案]{あん}じられる (明鏡国語辞典「られる」❷自発)

  • あの人のことがしのばれる (明鏡国語辞典「れる」❷自発)




The spontaneous れる/られる is usually used with a verb related to one's thoughts or feelings, e.g. 思う、感じる、考える、悔やむ、惜しむ、見る、聞く etc. For more on 自発, you could refer to 『自発(文法)- Wikipedia』.


You are right that the られ in your example is in the continuative form (連用形).


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