> 愛鳥の寝顔、見てるだけで思わず **笑みがこぼれてくる**
>
> 愛鳥の寝顔、見てるだけで思わず **笑みがこぼれる**

My question is how is the 1st sentence different from the 2nd, and what nuance
does the くる add.
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2016-05-04T06:34:50.553
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2021-04-30T07:42:41.303
2016-05-04T08:26:37.510
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question
grammar meaning て-form
What does 笑みがこぼれてくる mean and how is it different to 笑みがこぼれる
Knowing there is no answer to this question for a long time, so I (new
contributor) am going to answer this. These sentences, reminding me of
Japanese Haiku, can be said to be equivalent in meaning, but in nuance they
are not easy to find differences between them. So I would like to say that
they differ very slightly in style or literary taste. According to my taste,
the second is better than the first, because in these sentences beginning with
the expression of 愛鳥の寝顔 followed by (、), which is very concise and impressive,
I think that a concise form of 笑みがこぼれる is more natural in this context than
笑みがこぼれてくる, which sounds to me a very little redundant.
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2021-03-30T03:05:30.527
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2021-03-30T03:05:30.527
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answer
If you're asking this, your Japanese is pretty good! That said, ～てくる、in this
context, means that the author is being reflective, looking at self outside
in. It also implies gradual, not sudden, change in emotions. It's the
difference between

I'm crying.

and

(when I came to it, I realized) I found tears flowing down my face.

笑みがこぼれてくる、is like, I found myself smiling, versus I smiled.
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2021-04-30T07:42:41.303
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2021-04-30T07:42:41.303
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answer