Can 遅れている be used in 「新幹線に乗り遅れるところでした」?


> 新幹線に乗り遅れるところでした。
>

>> We were on the verge of missing the Shinkansen.

>
>
> [context](https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=CUXRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT497&dq=After%20verbs%20in%20the%20progressive%20form,%20specifying%20the%20moment%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20japanese%20grammar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn6Nvmx4r1AhUTtTEKHQevAeUQ6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q=After%20verbs%20in%20the%20progressive%20form%2C%20specifying%20the%20moment%20in%20the%20middle%20of%20japanese%20grammar&f=false)

I don't see how the above expresses the middle point of an action if the
dictionary form of the verb is used. Shouldn't `遅れている` be used instead? Using
the dictionary form of the verb means, just like the translation suggests,
that you're about to experience something, not yet happening.

> 新幹線に乗り遅れているところでした。
>

>> We were on the verge of missing the Shinkansen.

>>

>> _lit._ We were in the process of missing the train.

I'm not really sure how to translate this into English, but I think the
overall meaning is the same. I haven't found instances of `乗り遅れているところ` on
Google Books, though. However, `遅れている` is community verified on Google
Translate: I'm aware that community verified translations are prone to errors.




> 新幹線に乗り遅れ **る** ところでした。

This sentence is correct. It is just put in the wrong category in your book.
As you say, 遅れる is not a progressive form and doesn’t specify any “middle
point.”

You could use the verb in the ている-form.

> 新幹線に乗り遅れ **ている** ところでした。

However, this doesn’t mean you were **in the middle of** missing the train
because missing a train is not a durative action. It means that you would have
found yourself in a state that resulted from your missing the train.

I would say the difference is in which stage of the scenario to focus on. The
first sentence puts focus on the stage where you are still facing the risk of
missing the train, whereas the second is more about the (imaginary) situation
after you have already missed the train. What actually happened is the same in
both. You nearly missed the train (but didn’t).

* * *

[EDIT]

In practice, both 乗り遅れるところでした and 乗り遅れているところでした can only describe an event
that didn't happen in the end. You don't need context to know it. This is
because 遅れる is not something you actively begin to do.

In general, the meaning is determined by what comes before it or, in short,
context.

> 家に帰ったら、家族はちょうど昼ご飯を食べるところでした。  
>  When I got home, my family was just about to have lunch.
>
> 家に帰ったら、家族は昼ご飯を食べているところでした。  
>  When I got home, my family was in the middle of lunch.
>
> 賞味期限が切れていることに気づかずに、食べるところでした。  
>  I nearly ate it without knowing it was past the expiration date.
>
> 賞味期限を見なければ、食べているところでした。  
>  If I hadn’t checked the expiration date, I would have eaten it.

The only sure rule seems to be that the second sense of “in the middle of” is,
by definition, not possible with non-durative verbs. But not many verbs are
purely non-durative. You can always zoom in on a punctual action or change to
see duration in it.




[ところだった](https://nihongokyoshi-net.com/2019/01/23/jlptn2-grammar-tokorodatta/)
seems to be treated as a different construct from
[ところだ](https://www.learnjpntaishi.tokyo/n3/grammar-n3/post-473) in learner's
grammar.

Although ところだった can be a past form of ところだ, it has the usage _it could have
been that..._ (as explained in the first link).

Whether a ところだった sentence is ambiguous depends on the meaning.

電車に乗り遅れているところだった can only mean _it could have been/happened that we missed the
train_ = _We could have missed the train (but we didn't)_. 電車に乗り遅れるところだった
means the same. (Note 電車に乗り遅れたところだ ~~is not possible~~ usually sounds odd.)

As an ambiguous example, 外出しているところだった can mean

  * _I was out at that time_ = past tense of ところだ; or
  * _I was almost about to go (but was still at home when the phone rang)_.

