I've been studying Japanese for about 2 years now, but this is something that still confuses me, and nobody has been able to provide me with a satisfactory answer so far. So I'd be thankful if anyone here could clear this up for me.

So, from my understanding, ~ている can be either gerund or past participle depending on context, right? So, for example, if someone says 今勉強している, it means "I am studying", but if someone says ドアが閉まっている, it means "the door is closed", and not "the door is closing".

So, my question is: How would you say "the door is closing" in Japanese? Considering that, apparently, there's no way ~ている could be interpreted as gerund instead of past participle there.

Another thing that I've been told is that 帰っている means "I'm home", and not "I'm going home". So, what if there was a scenario like this: imagine a man is at home, waiting for his son to come back from a party. His son's taking too long, so he decides to call his cellphone to ask where he is, and his son wants to say that he's actually already on his way home. Since 今帰っている would actually mean "I'm already home", what would he say then?

ドアが閉まります。ご注意ください。 The door is closing. Please be careful. Heard a million times on a million trains.

Here, it's at the end of this MP3:
http://melody.pos.to/sound/jreast/yamano...100514.mp3

I think of ている not only as -ing, but as "continues to be in this state (on and on)."

So the door that's 開いている is still open. Close it, you'll let flies in!

rich_f Wrote:ドアが閉まります。ご注意ください。 The door is closing. Please be careful. Heard a million times on a million trains. :D

Here, it's at the end of this MP3:
http://melody.pos.to/sound/jreast/yamano...100514.mp3

I think of ている not only as -ing, but as "continues to be in this state (on and on)."

So the door that's 開いている is still open. Close it, you'll let flies in!

Ah, so they'd just use the "present" form of the verb either way? Nice, I wonder why nobody ever told this to me before. It's way more simple than I thought it'd be :P

So, that means the "I'm going home" example I gave would simply be 今帰る, regardless if he's already on his way or if he's about to go back home?

As rich_f indicates, in many cases just the regular imperfective (e.g. 帰る) can be used. You can use ～ているところ to mean "in the process of" with even verbs like 帰る and 閉まる, but it's not used as frequently as the equivalent English phrases.

Ah, many thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know! :D
So, ~ているところ would be used in what kind of context? Would it be when an important process is being described, such as instructions, and the person wants to be as clear as possible?

Here's a few examples from core:

今、論文の下書きをしているところです。
I am in the middle of the thesis draft now.

ボーナスの使い道を考えているところです。
I'm just thinking about how to use my bonus.

A lot of the stative　verbs that are different between Japanese and English. Just for kicks though, in the Tosa Dialect, they do differentiate between between stative and dynamic verbs ～ちゅう for stative, and　～ゆう for dynamics.
知っちゅう？　読みゆう？ 彼が帰りゆう。　彼が帰っちゅう。

今帰っているところ
今帰っている途中
今帰っている
are all common. 今帰っている can be used both ways.
You might see 今帰ってる最中 as well.

今帰る would be when you're about to set off.

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今帰っている途中 and 今帰っている are fine. It's often said the ている form of a instantaneous verb is static but what's important is that whatever "instantaneous verb" is not necessarily instantaneous depending on usage.

Thanks for all the replies! I'd never heard of plenty of those forms mentioned here, so this is very helpful.

@viharati, does that mean that 帰っている could actually be interpreted as gerund instead of participle depending on context? I'd thought it was always participle.

Yes and not limited to 帰る, aside from the fact that the perfect aspect is dominant. For example, 最近は早く帰っている is a temporary habitual action (though it doesn't necessarily deter from expressing the perfect aspect). The easiest is to say 帰ってる while seeing kids going home.

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Arupan Wrote:家に向かって（い）る (if you really want to use the ～ている form verb as predicate)

So, while i) 帰っている has a perfect sense, ii) 向かっている can be used to mean the action is taking place now?
Where does this difference come from? How can you tell in general whether a verb in the ている form will be of type i) or ii) ?
I would have thought that 帰る and 向かう belong to the same class.

向かう means to head out and its perfect aspect stands for the same status as continuous state of 帰る. Or you can simply think of it as continuous.

.

Thanks, I think I'm getting a better understanding of how those verbs work now =)

@Arupan: Wow, this is the first time I've heard of へ and に having a slight difference. I've always been taught they're synonyms! Now I'm curious to hear what the difference is.

Unexpected Wrote:Thanks, I think I'm getting a better understanding of how those verbs work now =)

@Arupan: Wow, this is the first time I've heard of へ and に having a slight difference. I've always been taught they're synonyms! Now I'm curious to hear what the difference is.

へ is a motion towards something, it's actually most similar to the 'to' in "I go to the mall."
に focuses on the destination itself.

Thanks for the answers.
Still the rules look a bit vague to me, like you need to know from experience for each particular verb or so…
Perhaps with practice everything eventually becomes natural.

Just found this reference:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/park/aspect.htm
Obviously, this is not a simple matter…

RandomQuotes Wrote:

Unexpected Wrote:Thanks, I think I'm getting a better understanding of how those verbs work now =)

@Arupan: Wow, this is the first time I've heard of へ and に having a slight difference. I've always been taught they're synonyms! Now I'm curious to hear what the difference is.

へ is a motion towards something, it's actually most similar to the 'to' in "I go to the mall."
に focuses on the destination itself.

Oooooh! Thank you!

@RandomQuotes: Thanks, I think I get the difference. So, it's as if へ wants to emphasize the movement, while に emphasizes where the person is going to?

@jmignot: That article is a great find! Many thanks for sharing, I'll check it out more thoroughly later.

Unexpected Wrote:@RandomQuotes: Thanks, I think I get the difference. So, it's as if へ wants to emphasize the movement, while に emphasizes where the person is going to?

Basically, yea.

RandomQuotes Wrote:

Unexpected Wrote:@RandomQuotes: Thanks, I think I get the difference. So, it's as if へ wants to emphasize the movement, while に emphasizes where the person is going to?

Basically, yea.

Alright, then, thanks!