きれいすぎる off from what I learned in Genki?

Grammar Points
#1

Hey all,

I’m going through working my way up to N3 and have been reviewing a few past grammar points as I go along. I remember in Genki learning that すぎる isn’t used to say something is too good/too nice/too positive attribute, that it was supposed to express something that was too much in a bad way. Am I misremembering that? In the flashcards it has sentences such as おいしすぎる and きれいすぎる which seem off from the rule I had learned. Am I misunderstanding or misinterperting something? I also thought the てある helping verb was supposed to go with anonymous sentences that were simply remarking on a marked change that remains and was done intentionally by だれだれ but the flashcards also have those sentences with a doer listed.

Thanks in advance :B

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#2

I’m no Japanese expert, but if I look up 「すぎる」in a monolingual dictionary, one of the definitions I see there is: “普通の水準を越す” -> To increase beyond the normal level. I also find things like “適当な度を越す” -> to go beyond a reasonable degree and “まさる。すぐれる。” (both of verbs words mean to excel, to surpass, so, in a good way).

This aligns with my (somewhat limited) experience. I see すぎる mostly being used for saying that things are ‘too much’ in a negative sense, but on occasion I come across instances where it is used in a positive sense.

Regarding 「てある」: it can only be applied to transitive verbs and transitive verbs always have a doer, implicit or explicit.