に生きる and で生きる

[raikado]

Hello,

The definition for 野生 varies a little depending on the dictionary:
デジタル大辞泉: １ 動植物が自然に山野で生育すること。
大辞林 第三版:①動植物が山野に自然に成長・生育していること。
I thought that 山野に from 大辞林 is quite odd.

1) Firstly, does 成長 by itself work with 山野に? (動植物が山野に自然に成長している。) My impression is that it doesn't.

2) Secondly, how does the meaning change by using に instead of で:
動植物が自然に山野で生育すること。
動植物が自然に山野に生育すること。
I know で simply indicates the place where the action takes place, and に indicates the place of something/someone's existence, but I'm not exactly sure how this changes the nuance.

 

[Yoshi_h]

I thought that 山野に from 大辞林 is quite odd.

I agree with you. It should be 動植物が山野で自然に成長・生育していること.

2) Secondly, how does the meaning change by using に instead of で:
動植物が自然に山野で生育すること。
動植物が自然に山野に生育すること。

No difference between the two. The second sentence just sounds kind of odd.

 

[Hoge]

There are a few verbs for which you can exchange に for で：
東京に/で 住む
東京に/で 暮らす
田舎に/で 育つ

Besides, we have some archaic expressions like:
氷河に果てる恋
ベニスに死す

 

[Toritoribe]

2)
A difference is that 大辞林 uses ～ている form, i.e., it can be considered to express the current state.

 

[raikado]

Thank you everyone!

Also, I asked if 動植物が山野に成長している is valid or not, and I said that I didn't think it was valid. (because I thought that に成長する would be "to grow into..."/"to become...") But after seeing your answers I now think that it is valid.
成長 is also one of those verbs for which you can exchange に for で, isn't it?

 

[Hoge]

I don't know why but ～に成長する sounds awkward to me. Sounds better if it's current state (～ている) as Toritoribe-san pointed out.

 

[Toritoribe]

Agreed. "Location"に成長する would be invalid except when being used in an attributive clause, including connecting to nominalizers. に sounds classical, as already Hoge-san mentioned, and で would be more common even for these cases.

 

[Yoshi_h]

I asked if 動植物が山野に成長している is valid or not

It's valid depending on context and construction.
Anyway, I take 動植物が山野に成長している as 動植物が山野で成長している. It never can mean 動植物 grow into or become 山野. Because 動植物 can't do it.

 

[raikado]

Thank you again for your help!