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I'm perfectly comfortable using いる、ある in Japanese, except today I came across
one question of ambiguity. People say ロボットがいる, which makes sense given that
they move as if they were alive.

For dead people, such as 飛行機の墜落事故の死亡者, would it be more natural to say いる or
ある for the deceased victims?
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2015-07-11T12:17:05.193
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2015-07-11T15:01:23.820
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question
word-choice
死亡者がいる, or 死亡者がある? Which is correct?
Saying 死亡者がいる is not bad.

いる is used for someone/something seems to be able to have own will,  
so you can use いる for a person, an animal, and even if for a robot.

If your subject is 死体 (dead body), saying 死体がある is correct.

死亡者が出る is not mistake, but 犠牲者{ぎせいしゃ}が出る is more naturally.  
Use carefully 犠牲者, it means implicitly that the victims are already dead in
the context of an accident.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-11T14:45:55.420
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2015-07-11T15:01:23.820
2015-07-11T15:01:23.820
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answer