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Intransitive verbs describe a change that people/things undergo from my
understanding and do not take a direct object. I've also read that the _te_
-form of intransitive verbs with いる describe a state that holds after said
change occurs.

E.g., 店が開く (the store opens) ---> 店が開いている (the store opens and remains open)

However, the verb 泣く'to cry' is intransitive, yet 泣いている apparently describes
the continuous action of crying (instead of a state)?
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2021-04-27T06:16:44.217
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grammar meaning nuances syntax transitivity
Does 泣いている describe a continuous action or a state after a change has taken place?
> I've also read that the te-form of intransitive verbs with いる describe a
> state that holds after said change occurs.

As a native speaker, I can say that this definition is correct but too narrow
in scope; the case you raised with 泣いている is perfectly valid.

I would map "ている" to english persent-perfect form, "has been" "have been". A
quick check to see if you can use ている would be to add もう２時間も "for two hours"
and see if it makes logical sense.

店はもう２時間も開いている The store's been open for TWO HOURS! (to someone complainig that
the store's closed and can't go)

彼女はもう2時間も泣いている She's been crying for two hours.

In short, your usage is OK. Don't take the textbook too literally.
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IMHO, this really has nothing to do with transitive vs intransitive verbs at
all. In my view there is actually a completely separate conceptual distinction
between verbs in Japanese, which you need to look at instead. There are:

  * Verbs that describe some activity occurring (which has duration)
  * Verbs that describe a change from one state to another

The ている-form really implies different things depending on which of these two
categories of verbs you're dealing with. For the first type of verbs, the
action can start, then continue for a while, then stop, so it's possible to be
"in the middle of" doing that action at some point in time, so for these
verbs, ている indicates you are in the middle of doing that action, and is
basically equivalent to the _present progressive_ form in English ("is
(verb)ing").

However, state-change verbs in Japanese are basically "instantaneous". That
means, they don't have a duration, and you can't really ever be "in the
middle" of doing them (you either haven't done it yet, or it's already been
completed). Therefore, ている can't mean you're in the middle of it, because that
makes no sense, so what it means for these verbs is you are "presently in the
state that results from having done (verb)". In English, this often
corresponds to the _present perfect_ form ("has (verb)ed").

How do you tell what kind of verb you're working with? Well, in many cases
it's fairly obvious. In cases where it isn't, you should consider whether the
subject is in a distinctly different state after the verb has finished than
they were before it started. If they are, then it's probably a state-change
verb. If they aren't, then it's probably a normal activity verb.

So in this case, 開く is clearly a state-change verb (it describes the
transition from being "closed" to being "open"). On the other hand, with 泣く,
after you've finished crying, are you in a different state than you were
before you started crying? Not really. And it's reasonable to think of crying
as an activity that can go on for some time, so this is pretty clearly not a
state-change verb. It's an activity.

  * 開いている: state-change verb (instantaneous) --> "has opened"
  * 泣いている: activity verb (has duration) --> "is crying"
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