What's new

触れさせていた VS 触れていた

zuotengdazuo

Sempai
8 Dec 2019
830
19
28
十香はその場に座ったまま、不思議そうな顔をして、唇に指を触れさせていた。

Hi. What is the difference between 唇に指を触れさせていた and 唇に指を触れていた?

Thank you.
 
Just from that single sentence without knowing the background context, I would interpret that 指 refers to a finger of someone else in 触れさせていた, not 十香's.
 
Just from that single sentence without knowing the background context, I would interpret that 指 refers to a finger of someone else in 触れさせていた, not 十香's.
Hi. Thank you. But according to the context, it's 十香 who touched her lips, so the finger was hers.
 
Yes, judging from the fact that you asked about it, I thought it would be actually the subject's finger. What I meant is to say it's unusual. One of the reasons might be that it's hard to add 指 there. There is no problem with 唇に触れていた. 指で唇に触れていた is acceptable but sounds too objective. Anyway, my impression is that the writer seems to have a tendency to prefer to use causative forms.
 
Yes, it's valid like 石像に手を触れる, but I personally felt it's not so common. (I found only two examples of ~に指を触れる in a corpus.)
 
Thank you again. So do you think 唇に指を触れさせていた would sound more subjective than 唇に指を触れていた? But apart from that, both expressions mean the same, right?
 
The description is both objective. Both are written from the observer's viewpoint. It seems to me that 触れさせていた has a nuance of a volitional action more strongly. The meaning is the same, yes.
 
Back
Top Bottom