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I've been unclear about this for a while and a recent question on this site
prompted me to ask for clarification.

Consider the sentence, **犯罪が増えている**. In this sentence, **is it implied that
the increasing has stopped?** In other words, does 増える represent an
instantaneous state change between some smaller amount and some larger amount
or does it represent a process that can continue?

If 増えている represents a progressive process and this implies that the increasing
in continuing, is it grammatical to include an amount? Is 「三倍増えている」acceptable
and if so, what does it mean given that the increasing changing?

If it is ambiguous, how could it be clarified?
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2018-05-03T05:07:28.200
58314
2018-05-03T09:36:47.047
3296
question
grammar words て-form
Is 増える a state change verb?
犯罪が増えている by itself, with no other information supplied, indicates an ongoing
phenomenon. "増える", the act of "increasing", either in English or in Japanese,
is something that can happen instantaneously or over time, depending on the
context.

増えている CAN be used when including amounts, but in such cases it does not
conjure an image of "continuing increasing (past this point)" that you might
thing would be implied by the "ている" form. Instead it conjures an image of "has
been increasing, up to and including to this present time" and as such, it can
be translated most naturally as a simple past tense verb. "Crime has increased
by 20 percent over the last 10 years." I can't remember having ever heard it
used in this manner though. Simple past or present perfect continuous forms
are more appropriate.

...Though I think 増える might be more appropriately used for physical increases,
such as amounts of objects, or weight.. rather than intangible things like
numbers of crimes, or political approval, for example.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-03T06:29:08.283
58316
2018-05-03T06:29:08.283
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answer
It depends on contexts.

If it's accompanied with 今まさに (right now), it's progressive, though you may
want to conjugate it into 増えていっている or てきている.

三倍に増えている is interpreted as "it has tripled" and it's not sure how it went
since then without extra information.
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2018-05-03T09:36:47.047
58320
2018-05-03T09:36:47.047
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58314
answer