Hello good people!
Full disclaimer: I did not go through the supplemental reading that BP offers for this grammar point, because I learned it via CureDolly and really like the way she handled it.
This post is mostly about BP defining ておく as “to do something in advance” on the grammar page.
CureDolly argues that this is certainly not an incorrect way of defining it, but that it can also be a bit too limited, and may cause confusions down the road. She also uses the definition of “performing an action and leaving its effects in place.”
For reference, the video I was rewatching is this one. The time-stamp for that link is set in the middle of the video, where she actually begins to cover ておく, so it’s a bit in medias res.
At this point in the video, she gets into two concrete examples of what she means with regards to ておく causing confusion if you try to define it as “do something in advance.”
For those preferring to just read right now, I’ll repeat her examples:
閉じ込めておく used in a sentence like “It is cruel to lock a small child in her room” It is not referring to locking up the child in advance - it’s about performing the action of locking someone up and leaving that action in effect. It is cruel to lock her in her room and leave her locked up.
泣かせておく used in a sentence like “It’s all right to leave a baby to cry sometimes.” It’s not letting the baby cry in advance, or letting the baby cry for some future purpose. It’s about performing the action of “allowing to cry” and leaving that effect in place.
I was curious about what others think with regards to adding something like that definition to the BP grammar page, alongside the definition of doing something in advance. I personally find the addition of this definition makes it easier to grasp ておく in some of its uses.
Just wanted to mention this, in case expanding the definition might help anyone take on this grammar point in future. ^-^
Thank you if you took the time to read this, and I hope everyone is having a fantastic day!