I’m kinda doubting anyone would have the technical know how to answer this question, but I keep thinking about it, so I thought I’d throw it out there and see what happens.
So いる is used for the existence of living things and ある is used for the existence of inanimate things.
Does anyone know the history/etymology of why it’s ている in the following grammar structure as opposed to something like てある:
電車は東京に行っている。
The train is in Tokyo. (The train has gone to Tokyo and is there)
When I was first learning this I got it wrong by putting it as:
電車は東京に行ってある。
I think I even got it right initially, but then changed it to ある as I had initially learned the phrase: ぺんがある。when learning the grammar for existence and kept forgetting to switch it to いる for living things. So when I put: 電車は東京に行っている。I then changed it 電車は東京に行ってある。As in my head, a train going somewhere (and still being there) would be similar to saying it is existing there, so I got my wires crossed and thought I needed to change いる to ある as a train is an inanimate object…
So yeah, I’m actually glad it’s always いる, otherwise it would take more brain power, but I was curious as to if anyone knows why it’s always いる and not ある or if there’s some reason ある just wouldn’t make any sense at all?