@Tim If you'll recall the PDF I linked you to about raising, the slides put together by Horn

A dissertation by the same author on the same subject, in rather more detail, is available online: vsarpj.orinst.ox.ac.uk/files/horn.dissertation.pdf

Apparently I'd downloaded this before and forgotten :-)

It's a lot to read, and I haven't had a chance to go through it yet

I've been reading a lot about 〜ている

Several different sources, including the thesis that Darius pointed me to

I linked to one source earlier (books.google.com/books?id=0eprLex8sr0C&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82), which is 中上級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック p.82

Different people have had different theories over time

In Western linguistics, Vendler came up with four classes of verbs (state, activity, accomplishment, achievement), based on whether they're 1. static OR dynamic, 2. punctual OR durative, 3. telic OR atelic

Kindaichi came up with his own classification for verbs based on how they behave with 〜ている, and he ignored telic/atelic

So he only had two contrasts: 1. state OR dynamic, 2. punctual OR durative. That would give three groups (state, achievement, activity) in Vendler's terminology, though I prefer the terminology "state, punctual, durative", since I think the meaning is more obvious

Kindaichi came up with four groups of verbs anyway, because he found that a very few verbs (そびえる and 似ている for example) always appear with 〜ている, and he decided to put these into a separate group

But later linguists got rid of his "fourth group"

Saying that 似る for example means "come to resemble"

And so it's almost always 似ている because "resemble" is when that has already happened

So it's really a punctual verb

So based on that, we've got three kinds of verbs: static, punctual, durative

Static → Doesn't appear with 〜ている

Durative → Has duration, appears with 〜ている with a continuous / progressive meaning

Punctual → Has no duration, appears with 〜ている with a resultative meaning

So based on that, 〜ている has two basic meanings, either progressive or resultative, depending on the type of verb

But then there are some extra meanings of 〜ている that both punctual AND durative verbs can have

Sugita calls these "habitual" and "experiential"

> マリは毎日このプールで泳いでいる　"Mari swims in this pool every day" (Habitual)

These interpretations typically appear with 「毎〜」「いつも」「ときどき」 and such

The experiential is a little more complicated--the link I mentioned earlier (books.google.com/books?id=0eprLex8sr0C&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82) explains in some detail

> マリは今までに３回この川で泳いでいる　"Mari has swum in this pool three times up to now" (Experiential)

So dividing it up this way, there are four meanings 〜ている can have (although you can subdivide it further)

Either progressive or resultative, depending on the kind of verb; and then, in appropriate contexts, habitual and experiential are also possible (for either kind of verb)

It seems like what all four have in common is a focus on the current moment

(Or the "reference time", which is generally speaker time but can be shifted to other times depending on the sentence)

That is, with an durative verb it makes sense to say 〜ている meaning "is still going" because it can take time

With a punctual verb, 〜ている means "is now in the state resulting from X", because the other meaning isn't possible

And it's really focused on the state now, not the event in the past--it's technically possible to have the resultative meaning without the event in the past ever taking place (扉が閉まっている can mean "the door is closed" even if it's never been open before)

So although these are often called "change-of-state verbs", the idea that there's a change of state in the past is only an implication, not actually part of the meaning

With an experiential meaning, the focus is again on the present--at this time, the experience or history expressed by the verb is true

> この橋は５年前から壊れている。　(resultative, the bridge was broken 5 years ago and is still in the resulting state)

> この橋は５年前に壊れている。だから、大きな地震が来たら心配だ。　(experiential, the bridge is in the state of having been broken before)

Some people use a more general term than "habitual", instead saying "iterative"

Martin uses the term "iterative", pointing out that it can be subdivided into several meanings:

1. 「家を出ている」 Repetitive with a single agent 'He leaves the house regularly'

2. 「家を出ている」 Repetitive with more than one agent acting repeatedly 'They leave the house regularly'

3. 「家を出ている」 Repetitive with more than one agent acting once 'They leave the house, one after another'

In Japanese, these meanings can be called 進行中 ("progressive" = ongoing) 結果残存 ("resultative" = result is still in effect), 習慣 ("habitual"), 経験 ("experiential"); state verbs can be called 状態動詞, punctual verbs 瞬間動詞, and durative verbs 継続動詞

In some writings, 習慣 ("habitual") is replaced with 反復 ("iterative")

経験 is sometimes divided into 経験・経歴

It's also worth noting that most static verbs are potential forms, and these can be converted into punctual verbs by using them with 〜ている

And 知る is special in that 知っている typically alternates with 知らない (so it might be called half-punctual)

Anyway, that's about what I've found out about 〜ている so far

This sentence seems grammatically interesting to me:

> 亡くなる前、一時的にではあるが、啓子はふっと意識の戻ったことがあった。

The phrase 「一時的にではあるが」

Martin suggests that it be interpreted as ellipsis before で

Well, he talks about examples like that one, I mean. He doesn't comment on this sentence specifically

@DamkerngT. おはよう！

Oh, that's too bad

@DamkerngT. Hehe! こんにちは！

@DamkerngT. はい、元気です＾＾　Damkerngさんは？

@DamkerngT. Good, because it's a pretty common word! ;-)

@ssb Oh, no!!

Do you still have that lung problem, whatever it was? (Was it bronchitis?)

Oh, it changes if your IP changes, I think.

@Tim This time I did my best to write an answer, although I think your question is on a difficult topic :-)