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ている verbs can indicate either the result of something (死んでいる) or that you are
in the process of doing something (食べている). However, I am having trouble
differentiating between the two with certain verbs such as 言っている. For example,
in the following dialogue

『もっと触れてもいい？』 『それって、髪だけのことを言ってるの？』

I am not quite sure if it would be "saying" or "what you said."
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-21T00:46:03.063
23894
2015-04-22T16:05:51.320
7712
question
grammar
How do you tell when 言っている is progressive or resultive?
In the specific instance you list, I read that as "by that, do you mean only
the hair?" or, more literally, "are you just _talking_ about the hair?" So
present progressive.
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2015-04-21T03:02:58.877
23895
2015-04-21T03:02:58.877
6580
23894
answer
I think an easy rule like this could apply:

  * If you can insert 「もう」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is resultive (彼には言ってる → 彼にはもう言ってる) "I already told him"

  * If you can insert 「今」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is progressive （それって、髪のことを言ってるの？ → それって、髪のことを今言ってるの？） (It does get slightly weird, but it remains logically correct)

So I would think for the sentence in your example, 「言ってる」 is progressive.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-22T16:05:51.320
23918
2015-04-22T16:05:51.320
9913
23894
answer