owe · Japanese · 借りがある / 負う

Debt as subject of ある · source に or から · thing を or が · working claim, revisable

English owe is one lexical verb. Merriam-Webster’s money line is owes me $5. Oxford prints both owes her father £3 000 and owes £3 000 to her father. The person and the sum are two objects, or the sum is one object and the person is to. Japanese has no single verb with that three-argument frame. The dictionaries split the reading across a noun plus ある, the verb 借りる in the form 借りている, the verb 負う, and, where the English is a duty to pay or to apologize, べきだ or 義務がある. This page makes no telicity claim.

借りがある is a possession-existential. The debt noun is the subject of ある, marked が. デジタル大辞泉 (小学館), as served on コトバンク, heads the noun 借り. Sense 1 is the act of borrowing, or the thing borrowed, especially a money debt: 借りを返済する. Sense 2 is a favor, a help, or an affront that has not been answered: この借りはいつかきっと返す. Those two lines print no person. The creditor, when a bilingual dictionary prints one, is に. 研究社 新英和中辞典, on Weblio’s owe entry, glosses I owe my brother $10 as 兄[弟]に 10 ドルの借りがある, and I owe the grocer as 食料品商に借りがある, and I owe you for my dinner as 君に食事代の借りがある. The same entry glosses owe a debt as 借金がある. 小学館プログレッシブ英和中辞典, on goo辞書, prints 友人に１０ドルの借りがある for I owe ten dollars to my friend and for I owe my friend ten dollars, and 彼女には借りがある for I owe her. Cambridge’s English–Japanese gloss of the money sense is （人）に借金がある, and the ticket line is 君にチケット代20ドルの借りがある. In every one of those lines the sum, when it is filled, sits in の before 借り. が introduces 借り or 借金 as the subject of ある. The sum is not a second object of a verb owe.

には on 彼女には and on 研究社 新和英中辞典’s 彼には古い借金がある (I owe him a debt of long standing) is に plus the topic は. The creditor is still に. The debt remains the subject of ある. Weblio’s 負う entry, in the block that pairs owe with Japanese, prints 私は、まだ車の借金がある beside I still owe for the car. 車の modifies 借金. No creditor is in that clause. デジタル大辞泉’s article 借金, on Weblio, is the noun of borrowing money or the money borrowed. The printed examples are 借金で首が回らない, 借金を踏み倒す, and 借金して車を買う. で and を and the する verb are those lines. They are not the existential 借金がある. The existential is the Kenkyusha, 新和英, Cambridge, and Weblio glosses above.

借りている is the ている form of 借りる. デジタル大辞泉 heads 借りる as ［動ラ上一］. Sense 1, using someone else’s thing for a time on a promise to return it, prints 友人から金を借りる and 図書館で本を借りる. The money line’s source is から. The thing is を. で on 図書館で is a place. The same article’s ている form is not a separate headword. Weblio’s 負う entry prints the form in a paired gloss: 彼女は200ドルを私から借りている beside She owes me $200. The amount is 200ドルを. The creditor is 私から. The English bare object me is から in that Japanese. IPAL’s case frame for 借りる, the frame already cited on borrow · 借りる, is Ｎ１ガ　Ｎ２ニ／カラ　Ｎ３ヲ, and the money sentence is 彼は銀行から金を100万円借りた. The label writes に and から. The money sentence prints から. A personal に beside 金を借りている reuses that label. It is constructed below. It is not the money sentence IPAL prints, and it is not デジタル大辞泉’s 友人から金を借りる.

負う is a verb. デジタル大辞泉 on コトバンク and on the same article’s shape: ［動ワ五（ハ四）］. Sense 2, taking something on oneself, prints 責任を負う and 恨みを負う. The obligation or the feeling is を. Sense 4, receiving a benefit, prints 先輩のご指導に負うところが大きい. The source is に. ところ is the nominal complement. Sense 6, the debt sense, is illustrated by the classical line その人は、わが金を千両負ひたる人なり. 金を is を. The creditor is inside わが, not a second object. 日本国語大辞典, on the same コトバンク page, files the cause reading as the shape …に負う: 視覚に負ふ所が甚だ多い. The obligation line there is 責任を負う, and 二重の義務を負んでる has を on 義務. Weblio’s プログレッシブ和英中辞典 prints 彼が今日あるのは彼の父に負う所が極めて多い, glossed He owes a lot to his father for what he is today, and 彼は重い任務を負っている. 斎藤和英大辞典, on the same Weblio page, prints 君に負うところがある, 僕は先生に負うところ多しだ, 義務を負う, 国家に対して義務を負うている, and 責任を負う. JMdict’s grammar note on that page marks one sense (as ...に負う). The ている forms are the ones those articles print. They are not a telicity claim.

The “owe one’s success to” reading is ～に負う or ～のおかげだ, and the two particles are different. On 負う the source is に: 先輩のご指導に, 父に, 先生に, 視覚に. Weblio’s paired gloss その論文は彼の顧問に負うところが大きい has the paper as the topic and the adviser in に. デジタル大辞泉’s おかげ, on goo辞書, sense 1 is help received from another, おかげをこうむる. Sense 2 is the result, including a bad result said with an edge: 残業が多いのは上司のおかげだ. The source is 上司の, the genitive の, not に. プログレッシブ英和 glosses I owe it to my brother that I was able to finish college as 大学を卒業できたのは兄のおかげだ. Cambridge’s head gloss for the gratitude reading is ～のおかげである, and the staff line is 会社をやっていけるのは残りのスタッフのおかげです. The result clause is the subject. The source is の. English I owe my success to my teachers keeps the person as the subject of owe and the success as the object. おかげだ does not.

払うべきだ and 支払い義務がある are the duty readings, and neither is a three-place verb. Cambridge glosses You owe her an apology as 君は彼女に謝るべきだ. The person is 彼女に. べきだ is on 謝る. There is no third object. The money sense of that Cambridge article is 借りがある, not 払うべきだ. A money clause 彼に金を払うべきだ stacks Cambridge’s に plus べきだ with the object particle of 払う. It is constructed below. It is not a filed gloss of owe. 研究社 新英和中辞典, on Weblio’s obligation entry, prints 人に義務がある and 損傷を加えた者は弁償をする義務がある. Eゲイト英和辞典, on the same page’s legal obligation line, prints 私たちには税金を払う法的義務がある. 義務 is the subject of ある. 税金を払う modifies that noun. The creditor slot in 人に and in 私たちには is に. 支払い義務がある is that noun frame with 支払い modifying 義務. A clause 彼に支払い義務がある is constructed from 人に義務がある. It is not a filed string.

負わせる is the outer -sase- wrap on 負う. It is a derivational layer. It is not the debt frame of 負う, and this page does not build it. The note on which object a clause treats as the object is Causative templates and argument selection. This page does not edit that note. The borrow verb stays on 借りる. The payment verb stays on 払う.